14 
INFANCY. 
a warm bath.” The question, however, now 
to be resolved is, in what mode, and at what 
temperature, bathing or washing should be 
continued through tire period yf childhood. 
This question, like others, is incapable of de- 
cision by an appeal to separate principLs. 
By one writer, daily immersion in, or ablu- 
tion with, cold water, for the first two or 
threeyears of life, is earnestly recommended; 
by another, it is condemned as an unneces- 
sary piece of cruelty, while tepid washing is 
directed to supply its place. Like the dif- 
ferent decisions past on the cameleon’s hue, 
these precepts, although opposite, may each 
be equally just. The weakly infant shall be 
washed “ with cold water into irrecoverable 
debility,” into convulsions and death ; while 
to the robust and hardy child the same ele- 
ment at the same temperature shall be con- 
genial, and by its use he will be prepared for 
the variations of cold and heat, to which he 
will in the course of life be exposed. In a 
popular treatise on consumption, recently 
published by Dr. Beid, we meet with the fol- 
lowingjudicious regulations on the subject of 
bathing: “ It may be proper to premise (says 
our author), that by the cold bath is under- 
stood water at an inferior standard to eighty 
degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer. Be- 
tween this point and that of 90 degrees the 
bath may be termed temperate ; and it is only 
bevond this last degree of heat that the epi- 
thet warm can with propriety be applied. 
From neglecting accurately to observe tiiese 
distinctions, which are of very material im- 
portance, a want of precision has often con- 
nected itself with directions for the employ- 
ment of both warm and cold bathing. 
“ Immersion in cold water, during the pe- 
riod of infancy, has been very generally re- 
commended, and too often had recourse to, 
in an indiscriminate manner, to preserve 
health, and ensure hardiness. The author 
has remarked several instances where sensi- 
ble, and cometinies considerable, injury has 
arisen from neglecting to observe the precau- 
tions necessary to regulate the employment 
of this important agent in very early years. 
In infancy danger to the lungs from cold 
bathing has been stated to exist in a very in- 
ferior degree; and by the practice of dipping 
children in cold water, susceptibility to the 
injurious impression of cold, in succeeding 
years, has been thought to be materially di- 
minished. This principle, in the abstract, is 
undoubtedly correct ; and, with the excep- 
tions and precautions now to be mentioned, 
may be pursued with -propriety and advan- 
tage. Two infants may be supposed of one 
family, of rever e constitutions. In the one 
a general torpor, debility, and great suscepti- 
bility to the impression of cold, shall pre- 
vail : in the other comparative vigour, acti- 
vity, and warmth. That degree of cold 
which would refresh and invigorate the one, 
would confirm debility and augment torpor 
in the other. A bath which is not cold to tne 
sensations must, in the first instance at least, 
be resorted to for the weaker infant ; and in 
neither case should immersion in cold water 
be practised when the external warmth of the 
body is inferior in degree to its general 
standard ; when after immersion the body 
appears to be chilled, or when returning heat 
is attended with febrile languor, instead of 
the grateful and genial warmth characteristic 
®f the appropriate action of exciting powers, j 
If the practice of immersion is guided by a 
cautious observance of these particulars, it 
may be adopted with safety, and will be at- 
tended with -success; but a total neglect of 
bathing would be greatly preferable to the se- 
vere and incautious manner in which infants 
are frequently exposed to these violent and ra- 
pid changes in temperature.” It ought to be 
added, that whether washing or immersion is 
employed, much care should be taken in dry- 
ing the skin, particularly in those parts in 
which it is loosely situated, as about the 
groin, and in the arm-pits. 
It may be necessary likewise to observe, 
that the breast ought on no account to be 
given to the child while being washed and 
dressed. A perseverance in this respect will 
ultimately prove of essential advantage. 
The habits of the child are greatly under the 
command of the parent or nurse. At the ex- 
pence of a few temporary tears permanent 
comfort may be attained. 
Sect. III. — Air and exercise. 
It has recently been conjectured that the 
air we breathe contributes equally, and nearly 
in the same manner, to the nourishment of 
the body, with the aliment that is taken into 
the stomach: respecting the grounds of this 
opinion it would not be in place, in the pre- 
sent article, to institute any enquiry. (See 
Physiology; and Materia Medica, 
section Dietetics). We have here only to 
impress the necessity of a constant and un- 
remitting regard to ventilation, in order to 
ensure a healthful condition in the infantile 
economy. 
Both the truth and importance of ibis 
principle would seem too obvious even to 
require notice by a writer on regimen, had he 
not daily opportunities of witnessing the mis- 
chief arising from neglecting its application. 
The public mind, however, appears to-be at 
length awakening from a long lethargy of pre- 
judice and error. We at length begin to 
breathe and to live. Even among the poorer 
and least informed classes of society, cleanli- 
ness and ventilation come to be acknowledg- 
ed as the surest barriers against the invasion 
of disease. Although, however, on this sub- 
ject modern science has much to boast, much 
likewise remains to be accomplished; and 
even in the present day examples cannot be 
too frequently pressed upon public observa- 
tion of the injurious tendency, especially in 
the susceptible and delicate period of in- 
fancy, of neglected ventilation. “ There is 
reason to suppose that, from the inattention 
of our ancestors to fresh air, multitudes must 
have perished in the very dawn of existence. 
In our times grown persons' have been dan- 
gerously affected by such a deficiency of this 
necessary of life, as did not even produce im- 
mediate uneasiness. Infants have perished 
in great numbers bi/ a stow sufocation, ter- 
minating in convulsions. As soon as the 
want of ventilation was observed the morta- 
lity has ceased.” Beddoes. A fact, of w Inch 
the following relation furnishes irrefragable 
evidence. In the lying-in hospital at Dublin 
2,944 infants, out of 7,(150, died in the year 
1782, within the (irst fortnight from their 
birth: they almost all 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 Uiey presented, in a greater or inferior 
degree, every appearance of suffocation. 
This last circumstance at length induced an 
enquiry whether the rooms were not too 
close, and insufficiently ventilated. The 
apartments of the hospital were rendered 
more airy ; and the consequence has been, 
that the proportion of deaths, according to 
the register of the succeeding years, is dimi- 
nished from three to one. 
Such facts as these cannot be too often 
made to pass under review. By the parent 
anxious for the well-being of her offspring 
they ought constantly to be enforced upon 
tlie minds of servants and nurses, whose su- 
pineness in respect to proper ventilation is 
often only to be equalled by their misma- 
nagement in other particulars. This indo- 
lence is often by servants carried to such an 
extent as very materially to injure their own 
health. “ In a large family (says Dr. Dar- 
win) many female servants slept in one room, 
which they had contrived to render inacces- 
sible to every blast of air. I saw four who 
were thus seized with convulsions. They 
were removed into more airy apartments, but- 
were some weeks before they ail regained 
their health.” Had infants unfortunately- 
been confined in the same tainted atmo- 
sphere, convulsions in these would have been 
more readily induced, and might perhaps 
have proved fatal ! A child then ought ne- 
ver, if it can be avoided, to be permitted to 
sleep with many individuals in the same 
apartment. It should not be lulled to rest in 
its nurse’s arms. When put to sleep in the 
couch or cradle the face must not be cover- 
ed ; at night the clothes should be entirely 
changed ; after the first or second month it 
should be daily taken out in the open air, 
when the weather is not cold or damp -. this 
is best done in the forenoon, immediately 
upon being washed and dressed; care being 
taken that the intant is not carried too much 
in one position, and that it does not suffer 
from cold. Every impediment to the purity 
of the air within doors is to be as speedily as 
possible removed ; and when ,the skin is pre- 
ternaturally hot, or the little patient becomes 
restless and febrile, the fires of the nursery 
are to be extinguished, the windows thrown 
open, or the apartments changed. 
To the full enjoyment of the atmosphere 
the free use of the limbs must likewise be 
added. On exercise scarcely any thing 
remains to be said. Freedom from all 
constraint is implied in the mode of dress 
above recommended. To those, however, 
who imagine that nature can be assisted by 
the contrivances of ait, or that symmetry 
of form is to be ensured by unnatural re- 
striction, it may not be it n proper to observe, 
that deformities are only known in those 
countries where mechanical dexterity has 
been called upon to prevent them. “ The 
infants of the Cadres (says the author of Tra- 
vels into the interior ot Southern Africa), 
soon after birth, are suffered to crawl about 
perfectly naked; and at six or seven months 
they are able to ran. A cripple or deformed 
person is never seen. In Egypt, again, the 
liaram is the cradle or school of infancy. 
The new-born feeble being is not there swad- 
dled and filleted up in a swathe, the source 
of a thousand diseases Laid naked on a 
mat, exposed in a vast chamber to the pure 
air, he breathes freely, and with his delicate 
