HEALTH.
Tho’ the principal Design of this Attempt be that of regulating the Manners of Children; yet as Health and Education are of vast Importance in the Government of them, and are closely connected therewith; I think myself oblig’d to speak of what may tend to preserve the one, and, in a due Degree, promote the other. For the sake of Method I shall divide my Subject into three Parts; that is, range it under the general Heads of Health, Manners, and Education; which to me appears to be the only natural Order of treating it. Mr. Locke, it is true, in his Treatise on this Subject, calls the whole, Thoughts on Education; but notwithstanding that general Title to his Book, he speaks likewise of Health and Manners, and ranges them all in the Order here propos’d.
As Health is the reverse of Sickness, my Readers will easily discern that it is not the Business of this Undertaking to invade the Physician’s Province, by entering on the Cure of Diseases; but only to point out such Means as seem to have the most rational tendency to prevent them.
First then, I earnestly recommend to both Father and Mother, that their Children suck the Mother’s Breast. But why, you’ll say, take pains to address each Parent distinctly? The reason is obvious. A Man cannot be conversant in Life, and not see that many a sensible Woman, many a tender Mother, has her Heart yearning to suckle her Child, and is prevented by the misplac’d Authority of a Husband. Parents upon the whole are to be consider’d as equally and mutually concern’d in the training up their Children; therefore when I address them by that one common Epithet, I mean either, or both. But there are, both in Nature and Reason, certain Provinces assign’d to each; and a Man’s attempting to overturn them, would be as absurd and preposterous, as a Merchant’s sending his Wife to transact Business upon Change, while he stay’d at home to preside over the Nursery.
Providence, we see, without any Expence to us, kindly sends Food into the World along with the Child, by giving to the Mother a Breast flowing with Milk. But to what purpose is this bestow’d? To be neglected and render’d fruitless? No surely; we cannot think thus indignantly of so great a Blessing. But besides this evident Design of Providence, there is another important Consideration; which is, that Mothers by suckling their Children cherish that Tenderness which Nature has implanted in them towards their Offspring. For Experience shews, that the Office of suckling considerably augments in them the Affection from whence that Tenderness flows; serves as Fuel to keep their fond Breasts in one perpetual Glow; and by sweetening their Care, enables them likewise to bring the tender Infants thro’ their helpless Age?
Another Argument for suckling, which is not sufficiently attended to, because not sufficiently known, is, that the Anxiety and Fatigue is perhaps fully compensated by the Pleasure. The provident Author of Nature has order’d in this, as in all, or most other Things, right and natural, that the Inducement shall more than balance the Discouragement. All Mothers who have experienc’d it, whose Minds are temper’d with natural Affection, assure us, that there is an inexpressible Pleasure in giving Suck, which none but Mothers know; for besides that the Sensation itself is said to be mighty pleasing; to behold the Innocence, the Cunning, the Tricks, and the various Whims of a Child; to observe likewise the early Sentiments they discover; must doubtless give a Pleasure which no Words can describe. Now if thus much be granted (and surely no Arguments can reason it away) I cannot help advising in the strongest Terms, that every Father consent, and even promote, that the Child be suckled by it’s Mother; if the Mother be in a Condition for it. But then, this Compliance, this Leave, if I must call it such, should be cordial, and from the Heart; otherwise a Mother, tho’ the best Nurse in the World, may become the most improper one, by a Husband’s so far souring her Temper, as to render her Milk, not only good for nothing, but even pernicious.
The general Good of all being what I aim at, I mean to offer the same Advice to all, as far as it can be practised; and therefore speak according to the Nature of Things. Still I am not insensible how little Probability there is that my Advice herein will be follow’d by Persons in high Life. For what Room is there in general to hope, that a fine Lady will lay herself under any of the necessary Restraints towards acting the Part of a good Nurse, and generously give up some of the vainer Pleasures of Life, in order to stoop to this Part of domestic Care? It is true that there may sometimes be important Reasons which may make their doing so improper; but it is greatly to be fear’d that those Reasons are oftener affected than real; and as this is a Duty not so easily dispensed with as People are apt to imagine, it is incumbent on Parents of the highest Rank to consider how far they are really justifiable in deviating from the Laws of Nature. But there is another important Consequence attends the Neglect with which People of Rank treat their Offspring in this Particular; that it thereby becomes a national Evil. It is universally known that the Little imitate the Great, and mostly too in what is wrong; that is, they catch their Vices sooner than their Virtues. Hence it happens, that because a Woman of the first Rank does not deign to suckle her Child, the Neglect descends to almost the lowest Rank; and many Men whose Figure in Life is very inconsiderable, scorn to bear the Noise of a Child, tho’ their own Flesh and Blood, only because it is a Practice among their Betters to remove them. And hence too the Great have two Reflections to make on this Point, the Duty they owe to their Children, and, (tho’ perhaps it is not a proper Observation here) the Influence which a Neglect of this Duty has on all beneath them.
While I am enforcing to Mothers the Duty of suckling their Children, I must endeavour to omit no material Circumstance, either that will contribute to the Ease of the one, or the Advantage of the other. The first that naturally occurs, is, the Time when a Child should be put to the Breast: and as this is a Matter variously thought of, and often erroneously managed, tho’ I could say a good deal from my own Observation, I have endeavour’d to settle it upon a much stronger Basis, viz. the Experience of competent Judges. Dr. Hunter, well known to the Public both by his Lectures in Anatomy, and his Practice in Midwifry, and one of the Men-Midwives of the Lying-in-Hospital in Brownlow-Street, informs me, that at the first opening of that Charity, they generally conducted the Business of suckling in the following Manner. The Child was not put to the Breast till the Milk came freely, or run out of itself; and as the Breasts commonly began to fill in about eight and forty Hours after Delivery, sooner or later, they were allowed to fill more and more, perhaps as much longer, ’till the Milk began to discharge itself: to forward this, the Breasts were frequently embrocated with warm Oil; to invite the Milk both by the Softness of the Oil, and the Motion given the Breasts by rubbing it in with the Hand. This Method was adhered to pretty generally, ’till they found by Experience that it was wrong. For besides that the Child might probably suffer in some Degree, by being so long depriv’d of it’s most natural Physick and Food, many grievous Effects often attend the Mother; viz. painful Swellings and Inflammations of the Breasts, Milk Fevers, and Milk Sores.