The form of the body and the members of a new born infant, are by no means perfect: all the parts are too round, and even when the child is in good health, they seem swelled. At the end of three days, there generally appears a kind of jaundice; and at this time there is generally milk in the breasts of the infants, which is squeezed out with the fingers. The superfluous juices, and the swelling of the different parts diminish by degrees, as the child increases in growth.
In some children just born, the brain-pan may be observed to palpitate; and in all, the action of the sinuses, or arteries of the brain, may be felt at this place. Over this aperture is formed a kind of scurf, which is sometimes very thick, and must be rubbed with brushes in proportion as it begins to dry. This matter seems to have some analogy with that of the horns of some animals, which also derive their origin from an aperture of the skull, and from the substance of the brain. We shall hereafter take an opportunity to shew, that the extremities of the nerves become solid by being exposed to the air, and that it is this nervous substance produces claws, nails, horns, &c.
The fluid contained in the amnios leaves a viscous, whitish matter upon the infant, which is sometimes so adhesive, that it must be diluted with some mild liquid before it can be removed. In this country we never wash the infant but in warm water; yet there are whole nations, who inhabit climates much more severe than ours, that plunge their children into cold water the minute they are born, without their suffering the least injury. The Laplanders are even said to leave their infants in snow, till by the cold their respiration is nearly stopped, and then plunge them into a bath of warm water. They are treated thus roughly thrice every day during the first year, and afterwards as often every week, do they undergo an immersion in cold water. The people of the North are persuaded that the practice of cold bathing renders men more healthy and robust; and it is for this reason they enure their progeny to it from their birth. The truth is, we are ignorant with the extent of what our body is capable of suffering, acquiring, or losing by the power of habit. The Indians in the isthmus of America, for example, receive no injury from plunging into cold water when in a sweat; and as the most speedy remedy for intoxication, the women throw their husbands into the river when they are drunk; the minute after delivery, mothers scruple not to bathe in cold water with their infants, and yet dangerous as we should consider this practice, these women are rarely known to die in child-bearing.
A few minutes after birth the infant discharges urine, and this generally when it feels the heat of the fire: and sometimes also the meconium or excrement which have been collected in the intestines during its residence in the matrix. This last evacuation is not always performed so soon, but if it does not happen in the course of the first day, the child is often affected with a pain in the bowels; in which case methods are taken to facilitate the discharge. The meconium is black, and when the infant is effectually eased of it, the subsequent stools are of a whitish cast. This change generally happens on the second or third day, and then the excrement becomes more fœtid than the meconium; a proof that the bile and other bitter humours of the body begin to intermix with it. This fact tends to support our former remark, that the fœtus did not receive any food by its mouth, but received all its nourishment by absorption.
The infant is allowed time to throw off the slime and meconium, which are in its bowels and intestines, before it is allowed to suck. As these substances might sour the milk, and produce bad effects, it is first made to swallow a little wine and sugar, in order to fortify the stomach, and to procure such evacuations as may be necessary to prepare it for receiving and digesting its food; nor ought it to receive the breast till 10 or 12 hours after the birth.
Hardly has the infant left the womb of its mother, and enjoyed the liberty of extending its limbs, when it is again put into a more cruel confinement. The head of the helpless infant is fixed to one position; its arms and legs put in strict bondage, and it is laced with bandages so strait as not to be able to move a single joint. Well is it when the compression is not so great as to obstruct the respiration, or that the midwife has taken the precaution to lay it upon its side, that the natural moisture may emit of itself from the mouth, since it is denied the power of turning its head in order to facilitate this emission. Do not then those nations act more wisely than we who cover or clothe their children without shackling them in swathing-bands? the Siamese, the Japanese, the Indians, the Negroes, the Savages of Canada, of Virginia, or Brazil, and almost all the inhabitants of South America, lay their infants naked upon a suspended bed of cotton or put them into their cradles lined with fur. Those practices are certainly liable to less inconveniences than ours. In swaddling a child, it is impossible but the restraint must give it uneasiness; and the efforts it makes to disentangle itself have a greater tendency to injure the form of the body, than any position it might assume was it left at full liberty. Swathing-bands may be compared to stays, which young girls are made to wear in order to preserve their shapes, but which nevertheless occasion more diseases and deformities than they are supposed to prevent.
If the efforts which children make for liberty, when confined in the swaddling-clothes, are hurtful, the inaction in which they are held by it, is perhaps still more so. Want of exercise naturally retards the growth of their limbs, and diminishes the strength of their bodies; and of consequence such children as enjoy the liberty of moving at pleasure, must be the most vigorous. It was for this reason that the ancient Peruvians gave their infants the full freedom of their arms in a swathing-bag; afterwards, as their children grew, they put them up to the middle in a hole dug in the earth, and lined with linen; by this method they had their arms free, and could move their heads and bend their bodies, without falling or hurting themselves. So soon as they were able to step, they were presented with the breast, at a little distance, as an incentive for them to walk. The children of Negroes are often exposed to much greater fatigues, in order to come at the nipple, they cling round one of their mother's haunches with their legs, and support themselves without any assistance from her; seizing the breast they continue to suck in perfect safety, notwithstanding she is all the while in motion, or at work. These children begin to walk, or rather creep on their knees and hands, in the second month; and this exercise qualities them for running afterwards in this manner, almost as nimble as they do upon their feet.
END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.
T. Gillet, Printer, Wild Court.