ON THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



Mii:h benefit might also be prevented, were 

 a knowledge oj the means of restoring suspended 

 animation, in cases of drowning, strangulation, 

 &c., generally disseminated. As prompt mea 

 sures in such cases are absolutely necessary, 

 many fatal effects have happened from the delay 

 occasioned by medical assistance having been 

 at a distance ; which might have been prevented, 

 had the proper means of resuscitation been 

 known and immediately resorted to by the per 

 sons present at such a juncture. Were the na 

 ture and importance of the function of perspira 

 tion generally known and attended to, it might 

 likewise be the means of preventing those dis 

 eases and disasters which flow from making 

 sudden transitions from heat to cold, which are 

 the origin of many fatal disorders among the 

 labouring classes. If a man is thoroughly con 

 vinced that more than the one-half of what he 

 eats and drinks is thrown off by insensible per 

 spiration, he will at once see the importance of 

 avoiding every practice and every circumstance 

 \vhich has a tendency to obstruct the operations 

 of this important function. 



The last example I shall mention, though not 

 of the least importance, is the fatal effects pro 

 duced by ignorance of the proper mode of treating 

 children during the first stages of infancy. It is a 

 fact deduced from the annual registers of the 

 dead, that one-half the number of children born, 

 die under seven years of age. This extraordi 

 nary mortality is universally imputed, by medi 

 cal writers, to wrong management during the 

 first and second years of their infancy, and the 

 practice of giving anodyne aromatic medicines. 

 Instead of clothing infants in such a manner as 

 to give free scope for the exercise of all the vital 

 functions, as soon as they are ushered into the 

 world, the midvvives and officious matrons fre 

 quently vie with each other to improve upon na 

 ture, by attempting to model the head and to 

 strengthen the limbs by the application of fillets, 

 rollers, and swaddling-bands, of several yards 

 in length ; thus loading and binding them with 

 clothes equal to their own weight, to the mani 

 fest injury of the motions of their bowels, lungs, 

 Umbs, and other animal functions. Instead of 

 covering the head with a thin single cap, and 

 Keeping the extremities in a moderate degree of 



IB hospital of Dublin, two thousand nine hundred 

 and forty-four infants, put of seven thousand six 

 hundred and fifty, died in the year 1782, within the 

 first fortnight from their birth. They almost a!i 

 expired in convulsions ; many foamed at the mouth ; 

 their thumbs were drawn into the palms of their 

 hands ; their jaws were locked ; their faces swelled ; 

 and they presented, in a greater or less degree, 

 every appearance of suffocation. This last circum 

 stance at last produced an inquiry whether the 

 rooms were not too close and insufficiently venti 

 lated. The apartments of the hospital were ren 

 dered more airy ; and the consequence has been, 

 that the proportion of deaths, according to the re 

 gisters of succeeding /ears, is diminished from three 



warmth, an opposite course is most frequenJN 

 pursued, which is supposed to be one among ttie 

 many existing causes of hydrocephalus or watei 

 in the brain. Instead of allowing the lirst milk 

 that is secreted, which nature has endowed with 

 a purgative quality, to stimulate the bowels, il* 

 is a common practice, immediately on the birth 

 of a child, to administer a variety of purgative 

 medicines in close succession, &quot; as if,&quot; says a 

 modern writer, &quot; to prove that it has arrived in 

 a world of physic and of evils.&quot; Instead o[ 

 being exposed to the invigorating effects of pure 

 air, and kept in a moderate degree of tempera 

 ture, they are too frequently confined to a hot 

 contaminated atmosphere, which relaxes their 

 solids, impedes their respiration, and frequently 

 induces fatal convulsions.* These are but a few 

 examples out of many which could be produced 

 of the improper treatment of children, from 

 which multitudes of painful complaints and dan 

 gerous disorders derive their origin. It is 

 therefore reasonable to believe, that were ge 

 neral information on such topics extensively dis 

 seminated, and a more rational mode of nurture 

 during the first years of infancy adopted, not 

 only fatal disorders, but many subsequent, dis 

 eases in life, might either be wholly prevented, 

 or at least grft;it.ly mitigated. 



We have likewise reason to conclude, that a 

 general dissemination of knowledge, by direct* 

 ing the mind to intellectual enjoyments, and 

 lessening the desire for sensual pleasures, would 

 lead to habits of sobriety and temperance. In 

 temperance has perhaps been productive of 

 more diseases, misery, and fatal accidents, than 

 all, the other causes I have now specified. It 

 has benumbed the intellectual faculties, debased 

 the affections, perverted the moral powers, de 

 graded man below the level of the brutes, and 

 has carried along with it a train of evils de 

 structive to the happiness of families, and to the 

 harmony and order of social life. Wherever 

 intemperance prevails, a barrier is interposed 

 to every attempt for raising man from the state 

 of moral and intellectual degradation into \\hich 

 he has sunk, and for irradiating his mind with 

 substantial knowledge. But were the mind in 

 early life imbued with a relish for knowledge 

 ard mental enjoyments, it would tend to with 

 draw it from those degrading associations and 

 pursuits which lead to gluttony, debauchery, 

 and clrunker.r.ess, and consequently prevent 

 those diseases, accidents, and miseries, which 

 invariably follow in their train. As the human 

 mind is continually in quest of happiness of one 

 description or another, so multitudes of the 

 young and inexperienced have been led to de 

 vote themselves to the pursuit of sensual plea 

 sures as their chief and ultimate object, because 

 they have no conception of enjoyment from any 



See the ^receding note. 



