Rickets is a Distemper extremely common in London; but if the Rules already laid down be observed, I dare affirm, it will very rarely be seen. It is not indeed the Design of this Treatise to cure Diseases, but to prevent them; yet as thousands of Children fall into the Rickets in a manner insensibly, often without it’s being once apprehended; I would here not only keep the Attention of Parents awake, but propose a Remedy.
Let us then observe, that many Children have all the appearance imaginable of Health, Strength, and Vigor, till about nine Months old; after that Age they begin to dwindle, grow listless, heavy and inactive, which to account for, Parents find a thousand Causes, perhaps all wide of the real. One ascribes it to cutting the Teeth, another to a Fever, a third to loss of Appetite, and so on; when after a Time it proves the Rickets: the Cause whereof is, generally speaking, bad Nursing. But whether this, or any other Weakness produces the Distemper, I earnestly recommend, that it be not suffered to pass unregarded, since much depends upon our early Care.
The great and noble Remedy for this Disorder is a Cold Bath; and tho’ the Tenderness of Mothers may make them shrink at the Proposal, yet neither their own Weakness, nor the Child’s Reluctance, must in this Case prevail, especially when I assure them that a very short Time will make the use of it not only easy but pleasant.
If a Child along with this Disorder has a Fever, a full quick Pulse and short Breath (as is very common) Parents should certainly ask proper Advice before they begin to use the Bath. But as some may be careless in this Matter, or at least unwilling to submit; and as many ill Consequences may follow from setting out wrong, I will in that Case recommend, that two or three Ounces of Blood be taken away at the Arm or Neck; next Day purge it with Rhubarb, and repeat it to three or four times, at a Day or two’s distance between each Dose: and even where there is no Fever, and the Lungs play freely, it should still be purged as above directed.
The more Water and the colder the Bath the better. At first use it only two or three times a Week, afterwards every Day; and continue it (unless other Accidents intervene) ’till every appearance of Weakness be vanished, even though it should last long, or come on in the coldest Season.
To obviate as much as possible all groundless Fears, I will on this Head add, that as Cold Baths act very powerfully on the whole Frame, they are frequently observed to give Cold at first using; and sometimes affect the Limbs and other Parts very sensibly; all which goes off on repeating it. And indeed, where a Cold Bath is judged proper, the only Circumstance which justifies the Disuse of it, is, it’s leaving a Shivering and Coldness all over, instead of that pleasing comfortable Glow, which generally follows the use of it.
The proper Cloathing of Children is a Consideration of great Importance; and indeed the Opinions of different Men in the Learned World, and of different Women in the Conversable World, are so very many, as to render it next to impossible to fix a Standard for Dress with regard to Health only, that would in any manner square with the various Notions subsisting. Arguing on Principles of Philosophy, from Reasons founded on the Knowledge of Anatomy, and the Animal Oeconomy, will not go down with the Croud. Nor will Examples produced from Practice, prevail on the Learned to think the general Practice right. It is not enough to say, that different Nations act with more or less Propriety on this Head; for even our own Country is herein much divided in itself.
What I have before observed on cloathing Children, relates only to the keeping up a due Degree of Warmth, ’till Time strengthens their Solids; but the grand Controversy is, what kind of Cloaths they should wear, and how they must be put on; how Boys should be cloathed, and how Girls; what Cloathing conduces to Health, and what impairs it: with many other Things much disputed, but still unsettled.
Nothing is more certain than that Nature in general is our best, our surest Guide, for the Conduct of Life; yet if we make the Law universal, we shall undoubtedly sometimes err. Two things all Mankind inherit in consequence of our first Parents Disobedience, viz. the Turbulence of our Passions, and our bodily Defects and Infirmities: all are sensible of this; all see and feel them, more or less. How small is the number of those, whose Passions are by Nature so happily calm, as to keep them free from Irregularities! How few are those, to whom Nature has given a perfect Form: whose Stature, Limbs, and Features, bear exact Proportion and Symmetry, free from Blemishes and Defects; such as constitutes a finish’d Beauty: or whose Constitution is so happily temper’d as to have no Bias, no weak Side, no redundant Humours to disturb Life and Health. This I say is evidently the Lot of very few. Still Providence, ever kind, has furnished us with Means to turn all things to our Advantage. To regulate our Passions we are endowed with Reason; to rectify, as far as Nature will permit, our bodily Defects, we are supplied with Judgment: but as in the first Case we are apt to let Passion get the Mastery of Reason; so in the other, we often let our Judgment err, or suffer Fancy to take place of it. Hence arise many of those Mistakes Mankind daily run into; and hence too the Judgment of one will sometimes be perverted into Fancy, and the Fancy of another be falsly esteemed Judgment. From this view it is easy to see, how vast a Field is open to Mankind to exercise their Judgment in; but where that is weak, Errors will certainly make their Way; which from the Propensity we have to do wrong, are sometimes so prevailing and swift, as to become almost universal; even so far as utterly to overturn superior Judgment. Now though we grant that every one is possessed not only of a Power, but of a Right of judging; yet we do not agree, that the Judgment of the Weak, or of those who have neglected to exercise and improve their natural Faculties, should be abided by, and made our Rule of Conduct: for as our Law-givers should be wise, and as from them we seek to be secured in our Property and our Peace; so from those who have searched into Nature, who have studied the Animal Oeconomy, and are acquainted with the Structure of our Frame, from those only can we rationally learn how to preserve Health. To apply then these Arguments to the Matter in hand, I would recommend to Parents with regard to Cloathing their Children, to be attentive themselves; to exercise and improve their own Judgment, as far as they have opportunity; not suddenly to run with the Croud, lest it prove a vulgar Error; but endeavour to learn what is the Opinion of Judges: and by comparing that with the general Practice, they may draw such Conclusions as will profit them most.