APPENDIX II. (Page 265)
Terrible instances of this may be seen in Trélat’s medical work, La Folie Lucide, etc. Lallemand and other French surgeons report numerous cases of fatal injury done even to nursing infants by the wicked actions of unprincipled nurses. I have myself traced the ill-health of children in wealthy families to the habits practised by confidential nurses, apparently quiet, respectable women! Abundant medical testimony confirms these observations.
It is not the plan of the present essay to enter into minute details and suggestions relative to every step of family life which bears upon our subject; such details are more suited to the private and familiar conferences of those who are resolved to ennoble the life of sex. When this high resolve has become a guiding principle, it will throw light upon every practical arrangement from infancy onward. It will then be seen that no details are insignificant to the watchful mother; that the shape of the child’s nightdress, made in the form of loose drawers; the manner of washing and of attending to its natural wants; the nightly prayer; simple and respectful answers to the questions of awakening curiosity—all endless applications will flow from a perception of the necessity of securing the slow and healthy development of sex.
Dr. Acton has called attention to the necessity of securing local cleanliness, and to the evil arising from worms and from the habit of wetting the bed.