34 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 



sure to be rickety also, and generally they show an ascending scale of the rickety 

 constitution as we descend from the elder to the younger members of a family. 

 Over-suckling has perhaps more to do with the production of rickets than any 

 other of the single causes mentioned ; and it cannot be too strongly impressed upon 

 young mothers in every station of life, but especially amongst the poor, that such a 

 proceeding is in the highest degree immoral, and far from lightening their labours 

 or helping to keep their families within convenient limits, it will assuredly increase 

 the one a hundredfold (for in the place of a healthy mother presiding over a family 

 of healthy children, we see a weak, sickly woman struggling with a family of 

 cripples) ; and as for the other object sought to be obtained, there is no evidence 

 whatever as to the possibility of gaining such an end, and, even if there were, the 

 immorality of the proceeding is such that any woman practising it ought to be 

 ashamed to confess it. Any woman suckling her children after tlie ninth month, 

 except under wholly exceptional circumstances, is doing a thoroughly wicked thing; 

 and what is more to the purpose, perhaps, a wicked thing which will bring a 

 terrible punishment upon her and hers in the shape of sickness, which will multiply 

 the trials of life enormously. 



Rickets is certainly most common among the poor, but it is not altogether limited 

 to the poorer strata of society. Occasionally we encounter rickets in a mild form 

 among the well-to-do, and even the wealthy; and when such is the case, we shall 

 find that the mother has been having her family very rapidly, or that something has 

 occurred to depress her health during pregnancy, or that she, too, has made the 

 fatal mistake of nursing her children for too long periods. 



Although rickets is certainly attributable to the causes mentioned, there must 

 be other causes at work which are less understood. It is a disease, for instance, 

 which is probably more common in London than in any other large town in the 

 country ; and, curiously enough, it seems to be almost as rare in Glasgow and 

 some of the large towns north of the Tweed as it is common in the Metropolis. 

 There may be climatic influences which help to cause the difference, or possibly the 

 common use of oatmeal among the Scotch poor may give a stamina to the con- 

 stitution of the mothers and children which is not to be got from wheaten flour. 

 Possibly, too, the great want of light in London, and the difficulty of getting to the 

 outskirts of our huge town for even the occasional enjoyment of country air, may 

 have their share in increasing the causes of anaemia (or bloodlessness) among our 

 women. These, however, are merely surmises. 



The treatment of rickets is happily tolerably satisfactory, and there are few 

 diseases in which we are able to effect so much and such permanent benefit. 



First, we must remove the cause, and point out to the parents of the children the 

 evil influences which are at work for the production of disease in their children. We 

 must see and try to ensure that the mother as well as her children are properly fed 

 in accordance with the recognised rules of hygiene (see chapter on Hygiene). The 

 ignorance existing among the poor as to the proper feeding of children is something 

 truly lamentable, and it is no uncommon thing to see a child drawing part of its 

 nourishment from Nature's fount, and alternating this with bread, red-herrings, 

 underdone potatoes, or whatever else is to be found on the badly-furnished 



