TO THE READER.
Before presenting a few from the numerous commendations to this invaluable work, we desire to furnish the verbatim copy of an able letter addressed to the editor by John Bell, M.D., author of treatises on “Baths” and “Mineral Waters,” “Regimen and Longevity,” “Health and Beauty,” etc., etc. The eminent services, as an editor and author, rendered by Dr. Bell to the profession will cause his words to sink deeply in the minds and hearts of thousands of parents and physicians, who have alike been profited by his skill and wisdom.
The Publishers.
Philadelphia, March 16, 1871.
F. H. Getchell, M.D.
Dear Doctor:—I must compliment you on your neat Introduction as in itself a good summary, with additional enforcement, of the advice contained in the work of Dr. Chavasse on the “Physical Training of Children.” The author has been very successful in conveying much needed instruction in language clear, forcible and readily comprehended by every reader. Mothers, for whose benefit the work has been prepared, must feel, with it in hand, that they have gained a friendly, disinterested and wise counsellor to admonish and guide them in many trying emergencies to a proper physical management, and to some extent concurrent moral culture, of their offspring, from the first hour of infantile life, on through childhood, until the time for school education begins. Familiar truths are here presented with a freshness and piquancy which carry with them the renewed assent and conviction of those who deemed themselves possessed of the requisite knowledge, while by the larger number, the uninitiated into maternal cares and children’s wants, they cannot fail to be received as the utterances of wisdom and long experience. In his inculcations the author does not assume that a child is a mere machine, to be made to go through certain movements by an older controlling hand, nor that it is to be left, like a young plant, to grow up in fruitless luxuriance, without pruning or grafting. He favors a large charter for nature, but he dwells also on the existence of natural laws, growing out of the very framework and constitution of a living body, an infraction of which, whether it be through ignorance, pedantic teaching, fashion or the intrusion of physic, is followed by injury to health and happiness. A child is not to be treated as an automaton, but as a being whose physical and mental organization, instincts and germs of intelligence are to be gradually developed under careful training. Growth, health and flexibility of movements come first: polish and the graces may well be an afterthought. The first instinctive wants of an infant, the gratifying of which is necessary to its existence, are air to breathe, food to nourish, external warmth by suitable covering, and sleep to invigorate and refresh. It is now that the reason of the mother and of her immediate aids should be deliberately exercised in the regulation of these instincts. Selection and limitation of means for the purpose must be made, and the physical training of the infant is thus already begun. How important that this training should be conducted with a full knowledge of the necessities of the case! and yet it is this very knowledge that is so generally wanting, and which it is the great object of Dr. Chavasse to supply. His advice and directions to this end are full and explicit, minute without being tedious and plain without being trivial. All the deeds and contingencies of nursery-life are anticipated, and the treatment required in consequence is carefully detailed. The cardinal purposes of a sanitary teacher are to preserve the health of the child, to restore it when lost and to prevent disease. While giving full scope to the fulfilment of these purposes, the author admits, with reserve, the necessity of indicating the means of curing some of the ailments and chief diseases incident to childhood. He enjoins the mother to send for a physician as soon as the case requires medical aid, and he gives the additional and often-needed advice to abide strictly by the directions of her medical adviser. There are times, however, when the suddenness and violence of the attack and the inability to procure timely professional assistance throw the mother on her own resources, and it is under these circumstances that the author teaches her how to act and what prescriptions to give, but not without many cautions on his part. It must still be continually borne in mind that everything can be done in the way of prevention, and much in the way of cure, by a timely and judicious use of the ordinary hygienic means applied for the growth and preservation of the child, viz.: air, water, food, clothing, exercise of the body and nurture of the affections. The medicine-chest ought never to form part of the furniture of the nursery. Meddlesome medicine is bad, and that medicine is always meddlesome when it is applied without actual necessity, clearly indicated by a competent judge. The mother will find this judge in the author of the present volume.
Especially to be commended are the sub-chapters on The Nursery, Exercise, Amusements and Education, the mere reading of which by parents, and more particularly by mothers, cannot fail, while inculcating new duties on them, to call their affections into increased activity and extend their benevolent feeling to all who are placed under similar circumstances with themselves. Air and light and range for romps and games, pleasant words and nurture in love inspire children with joy and gladness, and parents, in reading these feelings, catch the soft contagion and become happier themselves in making their miniature second selves happy. In a subsequent part of the volume, under the head of “Boyhood and Girlhood,” additional advice is given on many of the topics which were detailed in reference to infant life. First among these is daily ablution in its full sense, including the use of the bath as “a grand requisite for health.” The transition from bathing to swimming is very natural and easy. “Swimming ought, then, to be a part and parcel of the education of every boy and girl.” In urging exercise and amusements for the young, and specifying many ways, including the gymnasium, dancing and skating, in which the desired object may be attained, the author could not fail to caution against the perversion of the pleasures of the dance by the too general accompaniments of tight dress in crowded rooms, impure air, late hours, over-exertion and rapid transitions of temperature, to which are too frequently added excesses in eating and the drinking of stimulating and intoxicating liquids. Children’s parties are properly stigmatized as disgusting and demoralizing. Schools come up for consideration, and most valuable advice and warning are given for the treatment of girls sent to these institutions. Physical education should always precede mental, and be continued with it. In a question between health and books, the former should always carry the day. “Unfortunately, in this enlightened age, we,” as the author justly remarks, “commence at the wrong end—we put the cart before the horse: we begin by cultivating the mind, and we leave the body to be taken care of afterward; the results are broken health, precocious, stunted and deformed youths, and premature decay.” All that is said in this volume on the subject of education is pertinent, suggestive and instructive, not only to mothers, but to all whose line of duty lies in training the young for the proper discharge of their duties in after life. Were I attempting to give an analysis of the work of Dr. Chavasse, I would have spoken first of his instructions on the topics of diet and clothing, which are quite comprehensive and adapted to the successive periods of infancy and childhood on to adolescence. Water for drink, milk as the staple food, “the most nourishing, wholesome and digestible,” ought to require no special recommendation did we not sometimes see the substitution by parents, intelligent in other respects, of beer and wine, and even diluted spirits, for beverage, and of highly seasoned dishes of meat, pastries, cakes, etc., for food. Of milk it is truly said that “the finest and the healthiest children are those who for the first four or five years of their lives are fed principally upon it.” The use of light clothing with a view of hardening children is discountenanced, as it deserves to be, and the present fashion of dressing children meets the strongest censure, as being both adverse to health and furnishing early lessons of vanity. The clothing should be of such texture and material as to keep up the animal heat, and in a climate like ours, as indeed in all northern climates or those misnamed temperate, the vicissitudes of temperature in which are so great and frequent, woollen undergarments can rarely be dispensed with. To children, and invalids at all ages, they are indispensable. The dress, whatever may be the fashion, should be easy fitting, and this more particularly, as pointed out by the author, in the matter of shoes and boots, the undue tightness of which is an abomination only second to tight lacing of the chest and abdomen.
Dr. Chavasse in the earlier editions of his work had carefully restricted himself to the domain of hygiene, and he was mainly induced to enlarge his teaching by the advice of Sir Charles Locock, in years gone by accoucheur to the queen. Following out this advice, he now gives, as already intimated, the treatment of some of the more urgent and serious diseases of infants and of children, to be carried out when a medical man cannot instantly be procured and when delay might be death. To a consideration of these he adds that of various ailments and of accidents, and thus enables the mother, with the assistance of discreet adults of the house, to have prompt recourse to the best means of treating them. The concluding section of the volume contains good and available advice for the prevention of diseases, the insidious approach of which makes it very necessary to detect their real character, and to adopt the best means of arresting farther progress, as in the instances of consumption and scrofula in both sexes, and curvature of the spine, most common in females.
Where there is so much to commend in plan and execution of the work of Dr. Chavasse, I feel no inclination to hunt out minor defects, and can have no hesitation in proclaiming him to be one of our most successful co-laborers in the grand domain of hygiene, and particularly in his chosen department, the “Physical Training of Children.” I must, at the same time, congratulate you, my dear doctor, for your having selected such a worthy companion in a course of sanitary instruction which you are pursuing in connection with your more onerous professional engagements.
Yours, sincerely,
John Bell.
J. W. BRINTON, M.D., of Philadelphia, Lecturer on Operative and Minor Surgery to the Summer Course of the Jefferson Medical College, Surgeon to St. Joseph’s Hospital, Surgeon to Philadelphia Hospital, etc., etc., in referring to Physical Training of Children, writes to the editor:
“The work seems to me an admirable one, and its suggestions, if followed, must, I am sure, tend to prevent nursery mismanagement.”
REV. DANIEL MARCH, D.D., of Philadelphia, author of Night Scenes in the Bible, Our Fathers House, etc., writes:
“I have been deeply interested in the title and contents of the work, Physical Training of Children. The slight examination which I have made of several chapters satisfies me that the subject has been treated with great clearness, delicacy and discretion. The book will come as a messenger of light, comfort and life to multitudes of homes. It will do much not only to promote health and long life, but to secure the highest enjoyment and the wisest improvement of life while it lasts. I wish it might find a place in every American home.”
REV. ALFRED NEVIN, D.D., of Philadelphia, author of A Popular Commentary on Luke, The Churches of the Valley, A Guide to the Oracles, etc., etc., says:
“I have examined the Physical Training of Children sufficiently to assure me that it would be a valuable acquisition to any family library for constant and convenient reference. The preventive suggestions which it makes touching the influences and agencies which often damage, if not destroy, the health of children, are of special importance. The form of questions and answers, in which the instruction is embodied, strikes me also as having many advantages. In addition to the intrinsic merit of the book, the very handsome style in which it is published must aid in giving it a wide circulation.”
HON. JOHN W. FORNEY, proprietor of the Philadelphia Press, and one of the most distinguished editors of the country, pertinently says:
“I have examined the work, Physical Training of Children, and regard it as exceedingly useful and interesting. It abounds in valuable information, and I do most cheerfully commend it to the public.”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
- Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
- Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.