GIVING MEDICINE.
"Prevention" better than "cure." Nine in ten infantile diseases caused
by errors in diet and drink. Signs of failing health. Causes of a bad
breath. Flesh eaters. Gormandizers. General rule for preventing disease.
When to call a physician.
So much error prevails in regard to the medical management of the young,
that a volume might be written without exhausting the subject.[Footnote:
Such a volume is in preparation. It is intended as a companion to the
present.] My present limits and plan allow of only a few remarks, and
those must be general.
That "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," has so long ago
become a proverb, that it seems almost idle to repeat the sentiment. And
yet it is to be feared that very few receive it as a practical truth, in
the management of children. Now nothing is more certain than that it is
easier, as well as more humane, to prevent diseases than to cure them.
I have elsewhere mentioned the opinion of a very eminent physician,
that nine in ten of children's diseases may be imputed to error with
regard to the quantity or the quality of their food. For myself, I am by
no means certain that nine out of ten is the exact proportion, though I
think the number is, at all events, very large. Few children, or even
grown persons, are seized with disease suddenly. Their progress towards
it is always gradual, and sometimes imperceptible. To a physician of any
tolerable degree of skill, however, there is no difficulty in observing
and pointing out the first steps towards illness; in those whose habits
of life are well known to him; and of foretelling the consequence.
But since parents and nurses are not so well qualified as physicians to
make these observations, I will endeavor to point out a few certain
signs and symptoms by which they may know a child's health to be
declining, even before be appears to be sick.--For if these are
neglected, the evil increases, goes on from bad to worse, and more
violent and apparent complaints will follow, and perhaps end in
incurable diseases, which a timely remedy, or a slight change in the
diet and manner of life, would have infallibly prevented.
"The first tendency to disease," says Dr. Cadogan, "may be observed in a
child's breath. It is not enough that the breath is not offensive; it
should be sweet and fragrant, like a nosegay of fresh flowers, or a pail
of new milk from a young cow that feeds upon the sweetest grass of the
spring; and this as well at first waking in the morning, as all day
long." [Footnote: Buchan's "Advice to Mothers," pages 337, 388]
There is much of truth in these remarks; but if they are wholly true,
then very few children are perfectly healthy. For no child that eats
much animal food of any sort, or, what amounts to nearly the same thing,
much butter or gravy, will long retain the fragrant breath here alluded
to. Who has not observed the difference in this respect, between animals
in general which feed on flesh, and those which feed on grass? And
whether it is the character of their respective food that makes the
difference or not, it is also true that there is nearly as much
difference of breath between _men_ who use animal food and those who do
not, as between other animals. The breath of some of our enormous meat
eaters would almost remind one of a slaughter house.
Nor is it the quality of food alone, that will induce a foul breath,
either in adults or infants. He who swallows such enormous quantities,
even of plain food, as by overloading and fatiguing the stomach, tend
gradually to debilitate it, will produce the same effect. The enormous
feeders of this full feeding country, whether they are young or old,
whether they inhabit the mountain or the vale, and whether they feed on
animal food or not, have generally a bad breath; and if they seldom
offend, it is because few feed otherwise. And it is not too much--in my
own opinion--to say of this whole class of gormandizers, no less than of
the flesh eaters, that they have laid for themselves the foundation of
future disease.
One general rule may here be distinctly laid down. As a child's breath
becomes hot and feverish, or strong, or acid, we may be certain that
"digestion and surfeit have fouled and disturbed the blood; and now is
the time to apply a proper remedy, and prevent a train of impending
evils. Let the child be restrained in its food. Let it eat less, live
upon milk or thin broth for a day or two, and be carried (or walk if it
is able) a little more than usual in the open air." [Footnote: Advice to
Mothers, page 338]
This rule is the more important, because, if duly persevered in, it will
generally prevent disease, and save the trouble and evil consequences of
taking medicine at all. Meanwhile it will be advisable to call in a
physician--not to give drugs, but to prevent the necessity of giving
them. There is a foolish fear abroad that physicians, if called before a
person is violently sick, will dose him with their drugs, as a matter of
course, till they _make_ him sick. But this, no judicious physician will
ever do. It may _have been_ done, though I believe it has been seldom.
The more general course is to defer calling for medical advice, till it
is too late to use preventive means; and medicine is then resorted to by
the physician as a sort of necessary evil.
A judicious physician, seasonably called in, would in many instances
save a severe fit of sickness, besides a great deal of expense, both of
time and money.
But if the first symptoms of approaching disease are overlooked--if the
child is fed, or rather crammed; with solid food as much as ever--and if
no medical advice is sought, his sleep will soon become disturbed; he
will be talking, starting, and tumbling about, and will have frightful
dreams; or he will at other times be found smiling and laughing. To
these, in the end, may be added, loss of appetite, paleness, emaciation,
weakness, cough, and consumption; or colics, worms, and convulsions.
I do not undertake to say that the most judicious parental management,
aided by the greatest medical skill, will always prevent disease; far
from it. The child may and undoubtedly sometimes does inherit a tendency
to a particular disease; or he may be made sick by error in regard to
dress, exercise, &c. But so long as nine tenths of the disease and early
mortality of the young might be prevented by due attention to all these
means combined, so long will it be necessary to reiterate the sentiments
of the present section.