13 to be considered in his dress, in his covering 
while asleep, in his bathing or washing, in his 
treatment in the house as well as, out of it, in 
his air and exercise. In short, with a compe- 
tent knowledge of the management of tem- 
perature, a nurse can scarcely go wrong in 
any part of the general treatment of an in- 
fant.” Herdman. It must be obvious to 
every one that the infant at birth nece-sarily 
undergoes a sudden and material alteration in 
the temperature of the medium by which, 
without clot! ling, it is- surrounded. The ef- 
fects which wou'-d result otherwise from this 
remarkable change, with respect to external 
warmth, are in some measure obviated by the 
immediate commencement of respiration. 
This, however, is not sufficient of itself to 
supply the defect of external heat. The 
change then must be artificially rendered 
as gradual and imperceptible as possible ; and 
the infant, during the first month, ought 
scarcely to be exposed to any sensible de- 
gree of cold, even for the shortest period. It 
lias been with many midwives a common 
practice to direct that the new-born child be 
immediately washed with cold water, and 
other irritating substances, in order to cleanse 
the surface of the body previously to its be- 
ing covered with clothing. All that is neces- 
sary, or even proper, is the use of warm wa- 
ter and sponge, without any further friction, 
after washing, than what is necessary com- 
pletely to dry the. skin ; indeed the propriety 
of washing, or in anv way cleansing, the skin 
of an infant at birth, has lately been denied 
by an author whom we have already quoted; 
but we think that the use of tepid water, ap- 
plied with gentleness, and .without any sub- 
sequent violence of friction, can in no case be 
objectionable, but ought always to be had 
recourse to. 
As soon as this process is completed, the 
infant is to be immediately clothed ; and now 
let the habits of the common routine of 
nurses and of friends be as sedulously watch- 
ed, and as earnestly opposed, as in relation to 
its diet It the customary mode of feeding 
infants has induced a long train" of present 
and permanent evils, the manner of dressing, 
(and which, till of very late years, has been 
persisted in with all the cruel pertinacity of 
contumacious ignorance), has also been pro- 
ductive of incalculable mischief. The evil is 
now diminished, but is not by any means de- 
stroyed. It has happened in this, as on every 
other occasion where the clamour of sense- 
less conceits has been made to silence the 
simple and artless dictates of nature, that the 
most preposterous customs have obtained. 
“ Physicians speculated about the infant’s 
imperfect structure at birth, about the imper- 
fect structure of his bones, the shapeless 
forms of his head, and the injuries he might 
sustain in birth ; about injuries and distortions 
from hurtful motions and unnatural positions. 
They thought the infant’s body unable to sup- 
port itself, and that even its own motions 
might destroy it. ) hen in came the mid- 
wives for their share of the concern. The 
task was theirs to model the head, and to 
straighten the limbs ; to improve upon na- 
ture ; and to support their improve- 
ments by the application of fillets, rollers, 
and swaddling-bands. They vied with each 
other who should work the work most 
cunningly; for, strange to tell, dexterity 
in working this work of cruelty was reckoned 
INFANCY*; 
IS 
one of their most necessary and important 
qualifications.” Dr. Herdman. 
In clothing, then, nothing- -'further is requi- 
site than to guard against the variations of 
external temperature, and to preserve a ge- 
nial warmth for the maintenance of functions: 
the fillets, rollers, and bandages, of the nur- 
sery are not useless merely, but beyond mea- 
sure dangerous. They are to be entirely 
laid aside, as implements ot torture and de- 
struction. No pressure on any part is to be 
employed. Abroad strip of iiannel or cotton 
loosely folded round the body is all that is re- 
quisite, even as a bandage for the navel- A 
tiiin single cap is the whole of the covering 
that the head requires or should receive. The 
body should be enveloped with a shirt ot fine 
cotton, made loose and easy, over which 
should bea covering offlannel : and in a word, 
the dress is to be so constructed, that the ra- 
pid motion of the circulating fluids may be 
preserved without the smallest impediment. 
It may be necessary, before quitting this sub- 
ject, to state, that the writer’s experience has 
convinced him of the propriety and import- 
ance of the above regulations' in regard to 
dress and diet, even where relationship has 
ensured an attentive and unprejudiced scru- 
tiny into particulars. 
But it is not as it regards clothing merely 
that the medium to which a young infant is 
exposed demands assiduous attention ; much 
care ought to be taken in providing likewise 
“ a fit habitation for the expected little vi- 
sitor.” The apartment devoted to the rear- 
ing of infants, during the first months espe- 
cially, ought to be so constructed and si- 
tuated as to ensure a steady, equable, and 
mild temperature. Small confined nur- 
series, where it is possible, ought to be 
avoided. In such apartments it is difficult to 
guard against the extremes of either heat or 
cold. An exposure to a stream or current of 
air, occasioned by an unsuspected breach in 
the window, directed on the body of a sleep- 
ing infant, has often been productive of se- 
rious injury. Dr. Beddoes directs that tne 
air of the nursery be never suffered to fall be- 
low fifty degrees ; and it is always to be care- 
fully retained in the memory, that lire defi- 
ciencies occasioned by ill-constructed build- 
ings can never be compensated by heaping 
coals on the fire ; by this custom indeed not 
only is the air rendered impure, but the tem- 
perature of the room is made still more irre- 
gular, and the danger of colds consequently 
increased. 
There is one caution which is especially 
necessary with respect to the management 
and economy ot nurseries. All occasions and 
sources of damp should most assiduously be 
guarded against. This caution is the more 
heedful, because the danger from this source 
appears to be the least understood or sus- 
pected. It is not uncommon to observe that 
parents and nurses who would dread the 
opening of a sash-window, at the same time 
unwittingly expose themselves and their 
charge to a much, greater degree of cold by 
permitting the suspension of wet clothes, in 
order to dry, about different parts of the 
apartment, and even by carelessness respect- 
ing the washing of the floor. The process of 
drying is the process of producing cold, and 
that too of the most noxious kind; for cold, 
when combined with moisture, has been prov- 
ed, in an excessive degree, inimical to the 
animal economy. Damp is equally insidious 
and detrimental. We are fully persuaded 
that from this cause originate many scrophu- 
lo.us and other infantile ailments so pecu- 
liarly prevalent in the British isles; and that 
where the diseases have been fancifully attri- 
buted to deleterious impregnations in tne wa- 
ters we drink, and various othex sources. By 
every individual, but more especially by the 
parents and guardians of infancy and youth, 
freedom from damp should be the first and 
great requisite in the choice of apartments 
and houses. 
But to return to the infant’s dress. The 
covering which we have recommended ought 
to be continued for the first six or seven weeks 
of infancy ; during this period, as we have 
already observed, nourishment, warmth, and 
repose, are almost its only requisites. After 
this time, however, or towards the close of 
the second month, the infant economy begins 
to change ; vascular action comes now to be 
connected with voluntary muscular motion ; 
the percipient faculty is gradually developed ; 
and the whole organization appears to under- 
go a change. The body is now warmed in a-, 
greater degree and more regular manner, by 
actions of its own production, and heat of its 
own formation. Exterior warmth is daily less 
. necessary ; and that quantity and kind of 
clothing,* which before were proper and genial, 
now become irksome avid debilitating. If 
with this progress of growth the summer 
months are at the same time about to appear, 
the covering of the child may, in a short 
time, be reduced even to a shirt and single 
external garment : the utility of this light 
clothing will be rendered evident by the feel- 
ings and expressions of the infant. It is al- 
most unnecessary to observe, that general 
precepts are incapable of undeviating and in- 
discriminate application. The changes of the 
weather, the season of the year, and the de- 
licacy or robustness of the constitution, will 
interfere with every rule, and give exercise to 
the independant judgment of every parent. 
Providence, however, has so ordained it, 
that in this, as in every other respect, the 
dictates of nature, which are communicated 
by the desire and aversion of the infaut, fur- 
nish the most faithful directories with respect 
to its management ; and these are conveyed 
witli such distinctness and precision as to be 
generally intelligible. It is only by disobey- 
ing nature s laws that, in the treatment of in- 
fancy, we have wandered wide of the path of 
rectitude, and are under the necessity of re- 
tracing our steps. 
We now dose the present section by a few 
additional remarks on the much-contested 
question of bathing. It has already been ob- 
served, that an infant, upon its first entrance 
into the world, should be immediately wash- 
ed with tepid or warm water. Others recom- 
mend immersion rather than ablution. “ For 
a new-born infant (says Dr. Beddoes) I 
should prefer instant immersion in water at 
eighty degrees to washing.” It is perhaps 
immaterial to which mode of cleansing we 
have- recourse, unless the latter may be 
deemed objectionable on account of the un- 
necessary shock it may occasion to the tender 
frame. It is likewise to be oh erved, that 
conveniences for the former are procured 
with more facility than the latter ; and that it 
is not every nursery that can, without diffi- 
culty, be furnished with a “ proper vessel fox 
/ 
