754 
a short time completely 
health. 
«* The medicine seemed to effect as much 
restored his 
Art. XXIX. Advice to thane ofithe Subject of their own Health, and on the Means 
of promoting the Health, Strength, and Beauty of their Offspring. By W. Bucuay, 
M.D. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and sduthor of Domestic Medicine. 
pp- 419. . 
THE author of this publication deserves 
great-credit for his strenuous endeavours 
to remoye the prejudices which so much 
tend to «ffect the health of females and their 
offspring; and which it is to be lamented 
still too generally prevail, The care- 
. ful observation of along life has pointed 
out in strong terms the various disad- 
»vantages which arise from the common 
mode of managing children, and the fa- 
cility with which those disadvantages 
might be avoided, by attending more 
closely. to the plan which nature and 
common sense dictate in so important 
an object. ‘The physician and the phi- 
losopher seem to consider it as beneath 
them to turn their attention to the cares 
which are proper in the nursery, and 
thus unfortunately leave to the manage- 
ment of ignorance and self-conceit, a 
very important period in the life of the 
rising generation. 
~The circumstances to which it is ne- 
cessary to attend, for the purpose of pro- 
curing to females that permanent state 
of robust health, which is necessary to 
-fit_them for the proper performance of 
the maternal office, is the first object of 
-consideration with the author in the pre- 
sent work. He possesses an elevated 
idea of the dignity of the maternal cha- 
‘racter, which he justly considers as ca- 
pable of dainty influencing the fu- 
ture destiny of the offspring, and he 
‘views with a well merited veneration the 
exertions of a female who faithfully dis- 
charges her parental duties. _ 
The education and conduct of females 
of the present day, are justly considered 
- as worthy of severe reprehension, and 
‘the author strenuously endeavours to 
bring them back to the mode of life 
which nature has intended them to pur- 
sue, as that. which is best fitted for mak- 
ing them good wives and good mothers. 
A weak, languid, nervous, or deformed 
woman may become a wife, but she is 
wholly unfit to become a mother. 
«© She risks her own lifeshe disappoints 
the natural wishes of a husband—and should 
‘MEDICINE, SURGERY, ANATOMY, &e. 
in so many days, as nature or rather the pat« 
sive plan would have done in so many weeks 5 
and the constitution remained quite unim- 
paired by the attack.” 
she have children, her puny, sickly offspring, 
as L before observed, will have little cause to 
thank her for their wretched existence. The 
evil is not confined to her own family; so- 
ciefy at large is materially injured ; its well- 
being depend’ on the vigour of the menibers 
that compose it; and universal experience 
has fully proved, that the frame of a hus- 
bandman or a hero is not to be moulded of 
cherished in the womb of debility, and that 
the bold eagle will never be brought forth by 
the timid dove.” 
The observations made im the chap- 
ters which relate to the Conduct p oper 
to be observed during pregnancy and 
child-birth, are very judicious and worthy 
of attention, but we should hope that the 
author has deviated far from accuracy, 
when he represents it as nd uncommon 
thing for a married woman to endeavour 
to procure abortion, merely from an ap- 
prehension of a large family, or to avoid 
the trowble of bearing and bringing up 
children. ” 
The second and greater part of this 
treatise relates to the nursing and rear- 
ing of children. Very ‘little medicine 
the author considers as necessary for 
infants, and this he had an opportunity 
of determining, upon a large scale, many 
years ago, at an extensive establishment 
at Ackworth, in Yorkshire where the 
consumption of drugs was by his means 
greatly diminished, and the héalth of the 
children materially increased. ‘The in- 
discriminate use of cold water, for the 
purpose of daily washing infants, he is 
of opinion does a great deal of harm, 
and is at best a very unnecessary seve- 
rity, which ought to be laid aside. When 
the mother is able to suckle her child, 
nothing more than her milk need be given 
for somemonths, but this may then begra- 
dually diminishéd, and: other food sub- 
stituted, that the change in weaning may 
not be sudden. . , rire 
*. In this as in the other parts of the 
work, the observations are im general 
creditable to the author’s good sense, 
knowledge of the world, and philanthro- 
py; and if attended to, will, we have no 
