In child-bed fever, early and free employment of bleeding and purging, with strict attention to low diet, will almost universally succeed.
In reference to the child, where there is no disease, the chief object of attention should be, to secure it against unnecessary exposure. Too much washing at first may be pernicious; and the practice of using spirits in these ablutions, merits reprobation. By the celerity of their evaporation, they produce a degree of cold much more intense than would be produced by the application of cold water, which would be universally condemned.
It would be totally incompatible with a small pamphlet, and with this extemporaneous address, to trace and delineate all the varieties of child-birth. Yet, we think enough has been suggested to secure as much safety in the time of parturition, as is attainable amidst the uncertainties of human life.
Perhaps, however, it is not proper to overlook some peculiarities in premature birth.
Abortion or miscarriage, which usually is accidental, sometimes becomes habitual; and at about the same period of conception, on many successive occasions, this disappointment will happen.
If there is a strong claim in the ordinary occurrences of pregnancy, for an attentive regard to the condition of mind as well as body, it acquires its utmost urgency in those conditions in which habitual miscarriage happens. The claim is urgent in behalf of the unfortunate individual, whose life is a perpetual series of suffering and anxiety, who is not only subjected, perhaps, every six or eight months to the debilitating effect of excessive hemorrhage, but whose mind is oppressed by disappointment, arising out of domestic and conjugal relationships, even more heavily than by the influence of personal suffering.
Until our present knowledge is enlarged respecting the association of mind and body, and the ultimate connexion of different systems of structure, we cannot appreciate the extent of moral influence.
Blushing shews the influence of mind on the circulating system; loss of appetite and sensation of stricture across the stomach, its influence on that organ; and perhaps the diaphragm, palpitation on the heart. Various phenomena indicate the influence of the mind and nervous system on secretion and absorption. And although we may believe the mind to act on the nervous system, that system on the vascular and absorbent, we never shall fully understand the nature of most diseases till the nature of this intercourse be more clearly developed. But if we allow the ascendancy of mind, its agency becomes most powerful when most sensitive; and when, with this morbid sensibility, it is most subjected to molestation.
How interesting and impressive are the claims of a female under these circumstances; and attempts to administer relief, by the unassisted aid of medicine, will, not unfrequently, issue in disappointment.
The causes of miscarriage vary; and as various as are the causes, must be the medical treatment. These causes primarily belong, in general, to the parent; but they may exist independently in the conception. With the former only we are interested at present. They may arise in the parent from either general or local causes. Every thing affecting the general circulation, deranges that of the womb in particular. But there are cases, in which there appears congestion or accumulation in the womb, without any manifest general disturbance. We must recur to a former observation; for till we understand the manner by which mind and the nervous system affect the general circulation of blood, we cannot understand the phenomena of abortion. Yet, is it a fact, that sudden mental affection, whether arising from excessive joy or sorrow, disgust or fear,—will often speedily and inevitably produce it.