A treatise on the diseases of children ; with directions for the management of infants.

  • Underwood, Michael, 1736-1820.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases of children ; with directions for the management of infants. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    out the expediency of a milk-diet;* but how long it ought to be persevered in, or infants wholly confined to it, is not easily ascertained, and will be further considered in its place, with a latitude that the question demands. There is a period in life, indeed, to which this nutriment is more particularly adapted, both experience and theory demonstrating it to be more suitable to young people than adults, as Arbuthnot has remarked; and it has been observed, that it does not appear that the gastric juice of the cow will produce the same change upon milk, as that of the calf does, which is, therefore, con- stantly made use of in dairies, for separating the curd from the whey. It can scarcely be improper, before I entirely quit the arti- cle of suckling, to relate a recent instance, and a remarkable one out of many, as a proof of the degrees to which infants may pine for the breast, even to the great hazard of perishing for the want of it, where the real cause of the disease is not suspected. This little history will likewise further serve to illustrate the preference of human milk, which has been so strongly insisted upon. The infant alluded to was very healthy when it was three months old, and was then weaned, on account of the illness of the wet-nurse; but soon afterwards ceased to thrive, and had continual bowel complaints. At the age of nine months I was desired to visit it, and was informed that it slept very little, was almost incessantly crying, and had for many days brought up nearly all its food ; it was become very rickety, and had the appearance of an infant almost starved. Trial had been made of every kind of food, except the breast, and the child had been many weeks under the care of an expe- * Whether the parent be able to suckle her own child, or that office be per- formed by a hired nurse, is not here particularly considered. The design is only to prove that milk is in general the most proper food for an infant. Whe- ther that, indeed, be prepared by its own mother, a nurse, or by such animals as the cow or the ass, is equally to the purpose : where the former cannot be had, the best and most natural substitute sboidd be provided.