understand her real situation, and feel the deep sympathy for her
suffering which she craved. As I stood by her bed, she took my hand
in her own, so cold, emaciated, and corpse-like, that it sent an
involuntary shudder through my frame, and said, in a whisper, “I am
dying, for the want of a little opium!”
Seeing me start, as though I would speak, she said,
“No! no! don’t tell them! They don’t know how I suffer for the want of
it; but you do, and you know how to pity me. O! I would give the whole
world, if it were mine, for one little dose--yes, one little dose would
be bliss to me!”
Ye who have hearts to feel for human woe, think, if you can, what were
my feelings, as I stood beside that bed, witnessing such misery and
hearing such language--well knowing, that I could do nothing for her
relief, nor say anything to influence others to give her what she so
much needed; and what, if she had done wrong in taking so long--who
will dare to say, that it was right to withhold it from her, in that
fearful emergency! But it was withheld--and in a few days she died!
Would that I could present the picture of this woman’s sufferings, to
all those invalids in our land, who are beginning to tamper with this
deadly drug, which at last “biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an
adder!” Methinks they would hasten to deliver themselves, as a roe from
the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS.
THERE is no part of the human system which has such a controlling
influence over the whole body, as respects health or disease, as the
digestive organs. Any derangement in these, especially the stomach,
calls up a sympathy of action from the whole animal economy. Nearly
all the morbid actions found in the general system, are produced from
causes, first operative on the stomach.
Hence, keeping the digestive system in a healthy state, secures,
as a general rule, a healthy action in every other part of the
physical organization. Therefore, to know something of the anatomy
and physiology of the digestive organs, together with the laws of
digestion, seems indespensable for every individual who would know how
to take care of his health. By the term “digestive organs,” is intended
the mouth, stomach, liver, and bowels, including the whole length of
this canal is a lining membrane, called the mucous membrane, which
continues from the lips to the opposite extremity; this membrane is
filled through its whole extent with minute blood vessels, and in some
parts, abundantly supplied with fine filaments of nerves. This membrane
has important functions to perform in the process of digestion; it is
a membrane of much delicacy of structure. Its healthy action is easily
deranged, and when impaired in one part, becomes, by sympathy, deranged
in every part.
THE MOUTH.
The mouth, with its teeth and glands, commences the digestive process;
the teeth are to masticate the food; the salivary glands give important
aid to digestion. There are three pairs of glands, which pour the fluid
they secrete, into the mouth; this fluid is called saliva; the efforts
of chewing food excites these glands, and promotes the secretion of
saliva, which is essential to the healthy digestive process.
THE STOMACH.
The stomach is the most important organ of digestion. It has three
coats; that which has most to do with digestion is the mucous coat,
which lines it; this coat is supposed to furnish, by its glands, what
is called gastric juice, which is the principal agent of digestion. The
stomach is abundantly supplied with nerves, and holds a very powerful
sway over the whole nervous system--so that, when the stomach is under
the influence of disease, either acute or chronic, the whole system
is immediately in a state of suffering. To secure, then, a healthy
organization, the stomach must be kept in health.
THE LIVER.
This organ is also essential to digestion; it furnishes the bile; it
is the largest gland in the body, and its office seems to be to gather
from and carry out of the system substances which, if retained, might
prove hurtful. When the liver is inactive, we have what is called the
jaundice; the liver failing to take up from the system that substance
which forms the bile. When this is the case, a yellow substance is
found diffused throughout the whole body, and it exhibits a yellow
tinge. The bile, when properly secreted and discharged, meets the
contents of the stomach as discharged into that part of the bowels
nearest the stomach, and is there supposed to assist in the process
of separating the nutritious part of the contents from the refuse,
which is to pass off by the bowels; but its more important office
is, doubtless, to rid the passage of the refuse, or the fæces, by
evacuation. The bile seems to be nature’s appropriate stimulus to the
bowels, without which costiveness, and other irregularities, are likely
to ensue.
THE BOWELS.
The bowels contain the absorbent vessels, which take up the nutritious
part of the food and carry it into the circulation of the blood, for
the support of the system; they also convey the refuse part of the food
out of the body.
MASTICATION.
Mastication, or chewing, is the first step in the process of digestion.
When food is taken, it should be thoroughly masticated, before it is
suffered to pass into the stomach, or it is unprepared for the action
of the gastric juice. Besides this, the action of chewing causes the
food to be mixed with the saliva, which is an important item in the
preparation of it for the action of the stomach and its juice. The
food should be taken with sufficient moderation, to give time for the
process of mastication, and the discharge of saliva from the glands
of the mouth. Eating fast, or even talking while chewing, besides its
incongruity with politeness and good breeding, is directly at war with
thorough mastication.
Many persons seem to think, that hurrying their meals to save time
is economy; their business drives them, and they drive their time of
meals into the smallest possible compass. This is miserable economy;
for, when they hurry down their food, half chewed and half moistened
with saliva, it deranges the process of digestion throughout, and, as
a consequence, the food not only sits bad on the stomach, and in time
causes dyspepsia, but fails to accomplish the sole object of taking
it--the nourishment of the body. In order to derive nourishment from
food, it must be well digested; hence it must be well masticated. When,
therefore, we hurry our eating, we hasten our steps on the wrong road;
time curtailed in eating, is worse than hiring money at three per cent.
a month. If we cannot spare time to eat, we had better not eat at
all; this idea cannot be too deeply impressed upon the minds of all.
Thousands, by this kind of careless and reckless eating, have, found
themselves the victims of dyspepsia, and all its attendant train of
evils; the digestive organs may bear the abuse awhile, without giving
many signs of trouble, but the penalty of that broken law must sooner
or later come; and it may come in the form of a broken constitution.
CHYMIFICATION.
Chymification, or the transformation of food into chyme, is the
most important step in the process of digestion. The food, after
mastication, passes into the stomach; here it is formed into a
homogenous mass, partly fluid and partly solid, which is called chyme.
What is the exact philosophy of this process, has been a matter of some
discussion, into which it is not necessary now to enter; nor is it yet
satisfactorily settled, so as to admit of any definite instructions
being given. The theory which is now generally received, respecting
the manner in which the stomach acts upon food, is, that the gastric
juice possesses a solvent power, by which the food becomes reduced to
a uniform mass; the solvent power of the gastric juice is very great
in a healthy, vigorous stomach, but varies in strength according to
the energy of that organ. The solvent power of the gastric juice
is evidently controlled by the vital principle of life; while the
gastric juice of a healthy stomach acts vigorously upon the hardest
kinds of food; yet sometimes, when it comes in contact with anything
possessed of the principles of life, its power is stayed--worms,
while living, are not affected by it, but when destroyed, are often
digested. The gastric juice also possesses the property of coagulating
liquid albuminous substances; the stomach of the calf is used for this
purpose, by the dairy-woman, in making cheese; and when the infant
throws up its milk, because the stomach is too full, that milk will
be more or less curdled--and instead of considering this curdling an
indication of disease, it should be accounted a symptom of a good,
healthy stomach.
The time ordinarily occupied in the process of chymification, when the
food has been properly masticated, has been found to be four or five
hours; the three first hours of the period, is occupied in the process
of intermixing the food, after it enters the stomach, with the gastric
juice. After this is accomplished, an alternation of contraction and
expansion of the stomach, or a kind of churning motion takes place, and
continues until the whole mass is converted into chyme, and conveyed to
the first intestines, or duodenum, to undergo another change.
CHYLIFACTION.
Chylifaction, or the formation of chyle, is the next great step in the
process of digestion. This takes place in the duodenum; the chyme from
the stomach is let into the intestines little by little; a valve at
the lower opening, or outlet of the stomach prevents it from passing
any faster than it can be disposed of, in the formation of chyle. This
fluid is a thin, milky liquid, extracted from the chyme, and then taken
up by absorbent vessels, called lacteals; the chyme passes slowly
through the duodenum, and, in doing so, becomes mixed with another
fluid furnished from the pancreas, or sweetbread, and the bile from the
liver; passing slowly through this large intestine, ample time is given
for the lacteal to take up all that is valuable, to be carried into
the circulation, for the nourishment and support of the system. This
chyle, taken up by the lacteals, is directly converted into blood, and,
in many of its characteristics, it very closely resembles blood. The
process by which this conversion is carried on, is called absorption;
that class of absorbent vessels called lacteals, are not only found in
the first intestine, or duodenum, but are distributed along the small
intestines, for the purpose, as before stated, of conducting the chyle
in its appropriate course, for the formation of blood.
EVACUATION.
Evacuation, or the discharge of the refuse part of the food, through
the bowels, is another and the last step in the process of digestion.
This part of the subject has a very important bearing on the condition
of the health; it is impossible for any one to possess good health,
while this office of the bowels is imperfectly performed. If the bowels
are relaxed and irritable, the food is borne along too soon and too
rapidly; this causes the process of chylification to be imperfect--the
chyle is imperfectly formed, and the lacteals have not sufficient time
to absorb it from the mass; this prevents the food from nourishing
the system. Hence, those who suffer from chronic diarrhœa may eat
largely, and yet grow weaker and weaker; their food does not nourish
them; the nutritious part passes off through the bowels, instead of
being taken into the blood. If the bowels, on the other hand, are
constipated, the consequences are no less unhappy. No one can possibly
be well with costive bowels; the free and easy action of the bowels is
as truly essential to health, as the free circulation of the blood.
When the bowels are sluggish, the process of absorption of the chyle
is retarded; and what is absorbed, is less pure and healthy, so the
quality of the blood is impaired.
Besides the evils already mentioned, a costive state of the bowels
often causes a pressure of blood on the brain, and also derangement
of the nervous system, excitability of the nerves, nervous headache,
depression of spirits, and a long catalogue of sufferings, too numerous
for details. Habitual costiveness impairs the tone of the stomach,
and prevents its healthy action; piles, also, with various degrees of
severity, are often caused, directly or indirectly, by constipated
bowels.
The causes of constipation are various, and to point them out in
detail would be, perhaps, a fruitless task. But there is one cause,
and a very common one, which claims attention here; it is the habit of
inattention to, and neglect of, the natural promptings of the bowels
to evacuate themselves. Thousands on thousands, especially females,
by a habit of checking the natural inclination of the bowels to throw
off their contents, have brought upon themselves habitual costiveness,
which, in time, has cost them immense suffering and wretchedness. No
one should ever hold his bowels in check, if it be possible to avoid
it; it can readily be perceived, that doing this would tend to diminish
the natural effort of the bowels, and to collect their contents into
a solid mass; then, the exertion required to empty the bowels, or the
physic taken to aid or make effectual that exertion, tends also to
increase the difficulty.
A habit of costiveness should always be removed, if possible; and the
best way of doing this, is by a course of discipline. Those articles
of food should be selected, which have an influence to keep the bowels
open. Bread, made of flour, has a tendency to constipate them; but
brown bread, and bread made of wheat meal, have a tendency to open
them--also molasses, taken with food, has an additional tendency;
fruits and greens, if the stomach can bear them, are adapted to relieve
costiveness. The influence of the mind should also be brought to bear
upon this difficulty; the operation of the mind on the physical system
is very great, especially in chronic complaints.
A person with costive bowels, should have a mental determination to
have a natural evacuation of the bowels, at some regular hour in
the morning--just after breakfast should be preferred. By a mental
calculation, by bearing the subject in mind, by thinking and desiring,
by intending to have the bowels move about that hour, very much may be
done by way of facilitating such a result. But if, instead of attending
to a favorable diet, and of thinking on the subject at the proper
time, we treat the difficulty with medicines alone, we do harm rather
than good: for the more alteratives we take, the more we increase the
trouble; the physic only overcomes the constipation for the time, and
afterward leaves the bowels in a more torpid state. Still, rather
than endure the consequences of costiveness, it is better to take
alteratives, in conjunction with other means, until the difficulty can
be removed. When alteratives are used in conjunction with discipline,
they should be of the mildest kind. No proper pains should be spared,
in overcoming this derangement of nature, till a habitual movement of
the bowels once in twenty-four hours, is secured.—_Coles, on Health._
TO MOTHERS,
IN REGARD TO INFANTS.
AS a general rule, mothers have not that care of infants which nature
requires. In the first place, as soon as the little stranger makes its
appearance, every precaution should be taken; it should be wrapped in
warm clothes, with particular care not to have it laid in a cold place.
Then a basin of warm water and good Castile soap should be ready,
and great care should be taken as to the tightness of its bands. The
infant, you must remember, comes from a warm berth, and particular
pains should be taken to keep it warm, especially when asleep.
I verily believe, that two-thirds of the children that die before
attaining the age of two years, die through ignorance of mothers and
nurses. In the first place, as soon as it comes into the world, it is
laid under the bed or table, with little or no care as to its exposure
to the cold; next a little rag is used, with some fine scented
soap, and it is dressed in a cold, gaudy apparel--its comfort not
considered--only the show of fine clothes. You have not the least idea
how much this little creature suffers, and you are laying up trouble
for yourself; I believe a child that has no pain, never cries. What is
the next thing that is done? “Why, I must give it purgatives; the child
must have a dose; we must deprive the poor thing of its senses, in
order that it may rest;” then they dose it with narcotics, and if, by
chance, it lives to be a month old, they take off its belly-band. Then
comes feeding; a bowl of strong bread and milk is prepared--and though
the nurse or mother has sufficient breast milk for it, they imagine
the child craves food, and the poor little creature is, as I may say,
crammed to death.
Why does the child cry? Perhaps, my dear friend, the cause is your
own fault--over dosing in the first place; be cautious, as soon as
the little one makes its entrance into this world. Do as I directed
before, then take a piece of fresh butter the size of a bird’s egg, mix
it up with loaf-sugar, put a little piece at a time into the new-born
infant’s mouth, and it will suck it down; this will cleanse its mouth
and alimentary canal, and open all obstructions in the intestines. Let
the child have the breast as soon as possible; the first milk will
purge the infant sufficiently, without having recourse to cathartics;
by giving purgatives to an infant, it does more harm than good. A child
ought to be put at the breast as soon as possible--it is a great error
to keep the child from it for several hours; and suppose the mother to
be weak, it will not injure her health in the least, as it is natural;
but it is unnatural to give the child strong bread and milk--give it a
little catnip tea, if it is absolutely necessary.
I have seen a mother, who imagined her child was hungry, and she would
have a cup of bread and milk on the stove all day, and every few
minutes she would give the child a teaspoonful; if the little creature
pushed it out with its tongue, she would push it back with her finger.
This is cruel; we may call this mother over fond. A child should never
have any kind of food until six, or even nine months old, if the
mother has milk of her own; I never gave mine any until they were to
be weaned--in fact, I never allowed my eldest son to have a mouthful
of any food, except the breast, until he was one year old; that day I
commenced weaning him, and gave him no drink through the night, except
cold water; I never gave my other children any drink but cold water,
after they were weaned. Feeding children at night is a foolish habit.
Let them wear their belly-band at least until you put short clothes
on them; then have a waist to their petticoats, with shoulder straps,
buttoned behind the waist, made from their arms to the hips; this
supports the bowels; keep the same on your girls for years; it would,
if practicable, be well for them to wear it all their lives, and we
would not then see so many young females afflicted with tumors and
cancers in the ovaries, nor the falling of the womb. I think babes’
dresses ought not to be too long, as it draws too heavily; the weak
form cannot support it as easily as you imagine. Let me beg of you to
study their comfort and health. I love to see a child well dressed, as
well as any one--but I see too many that suffer from the law of fashion
rather than comfort, that I pity them. Keep the feet warm with socks,
and the head cool, but not to extremes.
Great care should be taken in regard to bathing children; always bathe
them regularly every morning--but let the water be warm; cold water
will do more harm than good. In the heat of summer let it be tepid--it
will strengthen a child; but when cold water seizes the little
creature, it generally produces too much fear to be beneficial.
When you intend to wean your infant, it would be well to choose the
shortest days, as the child will sleep more. A good substitute for
mother’s milk is arrow-root, boiled in half milk and water. Avoid
strong food; the least sugar you give the better. If medicine is
required, use Turkey rhubarb; always buy the root, and prepare it
yourself--do not get it pulverized; cut it, and steep it as much as
necessary; add a few caraway seeds to it, when you steep it. This
medicine will not injure the child, in case you give too much, as would
any other cathartic, but it is strengthening to the bowels.
If the child has a sore mouth, get some pulverized wild turnip and
cranesbill bark; take two teaspoonsful of loaf sugar, and as much of
the barks as you can hold on a ten cent piece; mix well, and put a
little, two or three times a day, into its mouth; give a little saffron
tea and a little rhubarb.
If the child is chafed in the neck, or elsewhere, take pulverized
cranesbill bark, and put it into a muslin bag; when you wash the child,
dust this in all the parts affected; do it as often as you think
necessary.
If it has sores, wash with Castile soap, and get some pulverized
bloodroot, and mix it with two-thirds water and one-third cider, and
wash it; this alone will cure all sores. A good medicine for children,
in the spring, is composed of the following: take half an ounce of the
best sulphur, quarter of an ounce each of cream tartar, pulverized
yellow dock root, tanzy, elecampane root, pulverized rhubarb root,
one ounce black alder bark, a teaspoonful of mandrake root, and a
tablespoonful caraway seed; mix these with molasses, and let them stand
twenty-four hours, stirring it two or three times during the day. Give
according to age--a child two months old, a piece the size of a bean;
a child three years old, half a teaspoonful in the morning, before
dinner, and at bed-time; you can begin with small doses, and increase
as you think best.
The best way to cleanse the blood of an infant, when at the breast, is
for the mother to take the proper medicines and purify her own blood;
it will do the child more good, and renew the milk. If your child is
full of humors, you may be sure they will increase; but do not wean
it on that account--purify your blood by taking the cleansing syrups
mentioned in this book; and, in case you do not understand how to mix
them, send to me for them, mentioning the age of the child, and how the
humor makes its appearance.
The seven years’ itch is very prevalent at the present day, among all
classes of society, from the highest to the lowest; it is fashionably
termed salt rheum, or a species of it. Children are more or less
troubled with the preaff, a species of ringworm; use no ointments,
externally, until the inside is well guarded, or you throw it on the
lungs, or in the joints, and make it a fool or a cripple for life. So
be wise and prudent. Do not comb or scrape a baby’s head, if it has
dandruff; wet it with a little sweet or olive oil at night, the next
morning wash it carefully with Castile soap, and continue until all is
removed. Keep the infant’s ears well cleaned; always use a soft brush
for the hair.
* * * * *
Kind reader--I have endeavored to instruct you how to secure good
health for your children; allow your aged friend to say a few words for
the soul--which never dies, but returns to its Creator, God. Have you
ever considered this important truth? If so--happy soul! angels rejoice
to see a mother leading her babes to Jesus! As soon as they can lisp,
teach them to pronounce the name of Jesus, and to ask him to bless them
and you. Bow with them at the Throne of Grace, morning and evening; be
simple and short, in your requests to your Heavenly Father, that it may
be a pleasure, rather than a task, to them.