It is a great mistake to suppose that children would not be quiet or contented without such indulgence. On the contrary, they would be healthier and happier were the opposite system steadily pursued. The greatest obstacle to be encountered is the ignorance of the nurse or mother, and her want of resources for the entertainment and exercise of the child’s bodily and mental faculties. If these be duly attended to, the child will not think of eating till the return of appetite enforces the demand; whereas if it be left idle and neglected, every thing will be carried to its mouth, as its only remaining resource against absolute inanity. So true is this, that I should regard that nurse as unfit for her employment, who should complain that her charge, otherwise in good health, is incessantly craving for something to eat. In this respect children are like adults. Give them something to do and to think about, and they will seek meat only when hungry. But leave them idle and listless, and eating will become their chief subject of contemplation.
In a matter so important as the rearing of children, one would imagine that every mother and nurse would be anxious for instruction on the nature, functions, and wants of the being committed to their fostering care. And yet it is notorious how rarely either one or other of them possesses any but the crudest notions of the animal economy, or can give reasons for the practices they recommend, or modify them in any degree to suit modifications of circumstances and constitution. In reality the wonder comes to be, not that so many children die, but that so many survive their early mismanagement.
From the age of six or seven years up to that of puberty, when the animal activity is at its height, growth in full progress, and the nutritive functions in their greatest vigour, a larger proportion of animal food, and a more generous diet, become necessary to the enjoyment of health and vigour; but they must still be accompanied by ample exercise and free exposure, otherwise they will tend only to clog and impede the functions of life. At that age the teeth and other organs concerned in digestion have become developed and fit for the assimilation of a richer aliment, and the rapid growth which takes place renders an abundant provision of the latter in a manner indispensable. It is then that the healthy youthful appetite demands quantity as well as quality, and that digestion goes on with an ease and vigour which the dyspeptic parent contemplates with a covetous and regretful eye.
At that age, indeed, the nutritive functions are so predominantly active for the purpose of carrying on growth, and supplying the rapid waste caused by youthful activity, that if the natural craving for exercise in the open air be freely indulged, and due attention be given to the development of the bodily frame, the young may be very safely left to choose for themselves both the quality and quantity of their food. In such circumstances, the natural taste inclines so essentially to the preference of plain substantial nourishment, that there is very little risk of excess being committed. But where the parents are intent only on the intellectual advancement of their children, and accustomed to subject them daily to many successive hours of confinement and study, with only an hour or so of relaxation in the open air, as is too commonly the case both with those educated at home and with those in boarding-schools, an artificial state of being is induced, which makes the rule no longer applicable, and renders necessary a more careful attention to dietetic regimen.
Among the higher classes of society the unrestricted use of the most exciting kinds and preparations of animal food, and the daily use of wine, are the means generally resorted to for the removal of the delicacy thus engendered; but when we consider the real state of the case, no remedy can seem more preposterous. The evil to be corrected is imperfect nutrition, and the want of strength. The imperfect nutrition, however, is caused, not by deficient food, but by impaired powers of digestion and assimilation, and these suffer only because the lungs are denied the free air, the muscles their necessary exertion, the brain its cheerful recreation, and the circulation the healthy stimulus which these united conditions infallibly produce. Instead, therefore, of oppressing a weakened stomach by administering stronger food than it has the power of digesting, the natural way of proceeding would be to prescribe at first a milder and less stimulating diet,—to improve the tone of digestion by fulfilling the conditions above referred to,—and then, in proportion as the stomach was strengthened, to adopt a more nourishing diet, suited to the increased efficiency of all the animal functions.
By running counter to this method, and using highly stimulating food improperly, many young people of the wealthier classes incur as much suffering from imperfect nutrition, and the diseases to which it predisposes, as if they were really the victims of an impoverished diet. Dr Clark, after making some very judicious remarks on the influence of bad digestion in inducing the consumptive constitution of body, expresses himself strongly on the evils to which I have just alluded. “Food in excess,” he says, “or of a kind too exciting for the digestive organs, may also induce tubercular cachexia,—a circumstance which is not sufficiently attended to,—I may say, not generally understood, even by medical men; nevertheless, I hold it to be a frequent cause of scrofula, and believe that it produces the same effect on the system as a deficient supply.” “The imperfect digestion and assimilation in the one case, and the inadequate nourishment in the other, being equally injurious: the forms and general characters which the disease assumes may differ, but the ultimate result will be the same in both cases. The adaptation of the food, both in quality and quantity, to the age of the individual, as well as to the powers of the digestive organs, is too little considered; and the evil consequences of this neglect are often evident in the children of the wealthy classes of society, who are allowed an unrestricted use of the most exciting kinds of animal food.”[50]
The opposite error, of not providing a sufficiently nourishing diet for the young, is, from mistaken views, much more prevalent than it ought to be, particularly in female boarding-schools, where, as already mentioned, the system of diet is often insufficient for due sustenance and growth; and where, consequently, the natural expression of impaired health, if not actual disease, is a marked feature in the aspect of most of the pupils. So defective, indeed, is the common school management in this and other respects, that we have the best authority for considering it as a rare exception for a girl to return home in full health after spending two or three years at an ordinary English boarding-school.[51]
It is true, that much of this result is owing to excessive confinement, neglect of cheerful exercise, ill-ventilated sleeping apartments, and other depressing influences; but to these, that of an insufficient diet may often be added; and when it does exist, it acts with double force from the impaired digestion, which seldom fails to ensue where the laws of health are so widely outraged.
I have seen some striking instances of incurable scrofulous disease, induced by the depressing influence of misfortune added to the want of a sufficient supply of nutritious food. After the mercantile disasters of 1825–6, many cases of this kind occurred, especially in families whose sensitive feelings induced them to shrink from public observation, and to suffer the severest privations rather than allow their situation to become known. In these cases, the tone of the general health first became reduced, and then local disease was easily excited by any trivial cause. In one, the structure of the bones and joints became disorganized, and amputation of the limb preserved life, but could not prevent other parts of the osseous system from being attacked. In another, caries of the bones of the foot ensued, but the constitution itself was so thoroughly tainted that no operation could be performed with even momentary success, and, after much suffering, the patient died. The same causes undermined the health of another member of the same family, and led to his death, from consumption, at an early age.