A Book of Medical Discourses, in Two Parts

by Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Frugality is advisable; looking to securing a home in the outer limits, away from all objectionable odors, where rooms can be ventilated and sunned in winter as well as in summer. Every room in a dwelling should be swept and dusted once or twice a week, the beds aired, and bedding changed. The general custom of housekeepers in our large and crowded cities, of keeping their rooms dark, winter or summer, inoculates into the system the germs of more diseases than could be enumerated and prescribed for in a day. A cheerful home with a small tract of land in the country, with wholesome food and water, is worth more to preserve health and life, than a house in a crowded city with luxuries and twenty rooms to let. That bad air is not the sole cause of infantile cholera, I will mention an incident in proof. While travelling through some of the thinly-settled districts of the British Provinces during the prevalence of cholera in the autumn of 1865, I noticed that most of the children suffering from the disease were those of parents whose circumstances would not warrant the comforts of life. This was during the months of September and October, when fish, oysters, milk and eggs are indulged in to some extent. I thought the custom of advising the removal of such patients to some elevated point near the salt sea air could avail but little, since they were near the sea air and mostly in well-ventilated houses, judging from the style of architecture. Also I noticed the same uncertainty on the part of women as to the management of the complaint as in the States. Herb teas, no matter what their nature, “catnip tea, castor-oil and paregoric.” Every drink sweetened, as a rule. The visits of the doctor few and far between; “so many cases he can’t possibly get around to them all.” I had a little charge at the time whom I never left an hour from the time it was taken ill till its recovery, three weeks later. The family doctor called in occasionally, but the circumstances of the young parents were such as to warrant the necessary aids to a recovery which it was my good fortune to administer. This was in a thickly-settled locality in the city of St. John, N. B., while in many upland towns of Nova Scotia it generally proved fatal. May we not be too willing to agree in charging our Heavenly Father with poisoning the air, so that it destroys infants by the tens of thousands in less than a quarter of a century?

Let the interested humanitarian visit those families where necessity demands the absence of the parent a part or all of each day, to seek a daily subsistence, leaving the youngest to the care of the eldest, winter or summer, before deciding whether it is a want of stamina, the depressions of the atmosphere, or indirect starvation which causes so great infantile mortality at certain seasons of the year. It is a mistake to suppose that cold milk given to a babe in excessive hot weather will answer as well as if warmed. The human stomach is supplied with heat from the blood and natural fluids, and when a quantity of anything colder than the contents of the organ is poured into it, the process needful to a healthy digestion cannot go on properly.

CHAPTER XVII.

SECTION I.
TEETHING MADE EASY.

As a general thing, children begin to get teeth from the ages of five to seven months. The middle, or incisors, in the lower jaw, are the first to appear, one in advance of the other; and, too, these may get through almost unnoticed. It is a custom with many persons to begin poking into a babe’s mouth just as soon as it shows restlessness, or signs of getting teeth; and, perceiving that it bites, as naturally it should, they at once introduce a rubber, or some kind of hard substance, for it to bite upon, to assist the teeth through. This is unnatural, and liable to increase the already feverish and fretful condition of the child. The more artificial friction is applied, the more inflamed will the gums become. Teaching babes to bite on the fingers, rings, dolls, and the like, is but subjecting them to torture which they would gladly repel could they speak.

There is really no set time at which babes should get teeth; some begin much younger than others. There are instances recorded of children being born with teeth; this, however, is of rare occurrence; but it is a common thing to see the forms of well-developed teeth through the delicate, transparent cover of the gums at birth. The development of these little bones is really peculiar, and worthy of the most profound study; but I shall only attempt to speak here in reference to the maturing process, or their making ready to come through the gums, hoping, by so doing, much of the seeming anxiety of young mothers and nurses from this cause may be removed.

The term “critical period” is applied so much to the process of getting teeth that it becomes fixed upon the heart of many mothers long before its time of beginning. The most that must be guarded against is fatigue, either from lying or sitting too long in one position, irregular habits of feeding, and untidyness. The more a child slavers when getting teeth, the better; yet this is not always a sign of coming teeth. The slaver, nevertheless, keeps the mouth cool and moist, preventing dry or papular eruptions. Cold water is advisable, given frequently from a spoon, while the teeth are breaking through. If the child is at the breast, well; if not, its food should consist of scalded milk; as it grows in strength, oatmeal is a good addition. If hearty and craving in disposition, Graham crackers crumbled in and fed to it with a spoon, about twice a day, generally gives due satisfaction. If the passes from the bowels are numerous, yet healthy, a drink of gum-arabic water two or three times a day, together with flour added to the milk in place of oatmeal, will generally regulate them. Over distention of the stomach by sweetened drinks should be strictly avoided. The extreme fretfulness of the babe at this time is caused by the pressure of the crown of the tooth against the sore or swollen gum. When the teeth get through, the cause of the distress will be removed. Should the gums continue painful, as is often the case with the double teeth, a dentist or the family physician should be consulted at once; and, if Nature has made ready the bony structure to be bared, the least touch with the lancet will part the skin and assist it through. I repeat that the gums in a healthy condition seldom need lancing; they may be left to Nature. Admitting, however, that there are numerous cases of daily occurrence where the lancet ought to be applied, it is positively forbidden by some would-be friend. The surest way to stop toothache in the adult is to extract the decayed member, and so the surest way to cut short the sufferings of an innocent babe, whose gums are swollen and painful, is to lance the gum, and let the tooth come through. Children whose mouths are dry from being kept too hot, eating highly-seasoned or salt food, or from some hereditary disposition, are especially liable to be late getting teeth, and there are many living evidences where none ever appeared.

The greater mischief is done to the whole nervous system by the unnatural but ancient custom of pressing and rubbing the gum long before, or at the time the teeth are making ready to come through. I believe it possible to trace the cause of insanity to the pernicious custom of rubbing the gums of infants. Once commenced, it, like all applications that arouse the feelings, is looked for at a certain time, rendering the child a burden rather than a pleasure to the family circle. It is strange, but true, that the anxiety of some mothers to see the much-mooted “critical period” culminates in a desire to bring it about.

SECTION II.
THE ORDER IN WHICH THE TEETH COME.

The four cutters may appear in the upper jaw before the lower ones; two may come close together, then the two lower ones. After a while, the other cutters get through, making eight in all,—four up and four down. Then comes the canine or dog teeth, of which there are four,—two upper and two lower. About this time the stomach begins to be more or less affected, according to the surroundings; the child is said to be “cutting its eyeteeth.” Lastly come the grinders, of which there are eight,—four upper and four lower,—twenty in all,—and are denominated milk teeth. The following is the order in which they appear: Eight incisors or cutting teeth; four canine or dog teeth; eight molars or grinders.