The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1830-11-10
THE MOTHER AND CHILD.
Ertract from Mr.. Palfrey's Discourse IAN tn
La6eraL Predcher,) on The use of ooisouef

]
L@0erat PreGcher,) on The use Of poisoned
! drinks.
! Do you know, fond mother, that when
you quiet your child with those warming in
ternal applications, which have been. if
they are not, such favorites in the nursery.
you quiet it with the repose of stupefaction ;
and are you so confident as to imagine.
that its tastes which you have so deprayed
in its swathing clothes, will demand no
hurtiul indulgence when it has grown TO be
peevish STRIPPING /? Do you expect to in.
crease the nutrlment which nature provides
Tor your nursing, by drinking porter your
sell, or dlstliled spirits in any form, and are
you sure that you can do this without any
huttiul consequences TO the object of yonr
care You would not, while fulfilling that
ONCE take mercury, for you know you
could not fail Immediately to communicate
II, with all IT'S active properties, to your
chlld's system. No more ought you, nor
can you with impunity, take any other
potent drug into your own. | suppose that
speak the unanimous sense of the enlight-
ed part of the profession, when say that
In proportion as any thing besides nourish-
ing iood increases the qnantintv of that ali
ment, 1t equally 'isterloratcs It's quality, and
makes 1t lnsalubrlous; and it is well known
that children. who, under these practices of
the mother have been afflicted with disor-
GERS OF the digestive organs, and even with
conVuislons, have been Immediately relieved
ny peIng transferred to strictly temperate
nurses. Such facts ought 10 be known, they
ought to he even thus published, for it is
grlevious when that all but angelic senti-
ment, the sense OF maternal duty, it is per-
verted to expose to the tIonble danger of a
drunkald's habits, the mother and the child.
USE OF PAREGoRIc
There are other practices of the nursery.
which i'll become that place;--the yerv
place where the patriarchs vIsioned ladder
should rest its foot, the ladder which led TO
heaven. What more lovely. me, any
parent,--tell me, any feeling child of
Adam,-what mere beautiful than sleeping
infancy the smoothly closed eve with its
long lashes, and its lids laced bv the fine
lhreaa OF healthy blood, matched by moth
ing but Heavens own clear azure.-tbe
lightly heavlng breast that no passionate
dream yet coEvulses,-the cheek sbaminr
the very rose-leaf which the gentle breath
from the parting OF the perfumed lips would
scarcely shake? Who, that has watched
this, has not felt his heart to be full with
the influences OF that fairest emblem. re-
naming among the makers visible works.
Of the the glorics Of primeval Innocence
| have witnessed another Graded sleep, and
that not in the novels only of this metropo-
lis, but in It's palaces,-a sleep, heavy, and
pale, and disturbed, and ster:orous and I
saw that the poor infant whom pazed on
was Growsy, because he was drunk. He
was sleepy with paragoric, and paregoric is
opium and rum, a composition which Samp-
son could not swallow much of, unscathed.
What are you thinking OF, miserable nurse,
what are you doing, mad nfolher,-
when you put that "child of the devil"
intoxicating drink. under the sustained snow
of an infants bosom? Well, indeed, nv
friends, might we ask the question many
times, "Did the man sin or his parents"
that he came on the stage Of mature life, a
mature sot?