Cheraw gazette. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1835-1838, 1836-01-12
MEDICAL.
phrsica, treatment of children.

From DR.. Combe,o on Health g. Mental Education
Asit is only In ats useful applications TO
the improvement and happiness OF man tha'
knowledge truly becomes power, we pro-
ceed, in accordance with this principle, TO
point out some of the advantages derlyaole
from that which we have attempted to COM
'municate. ,,,s A.
Eappears from the London. Bill Of Nor.
talitv. that between. fourth and nth. OF
all he inf;nts baptized dieMithin: the first
two wears of their existence. This'extraor-
dinary result is not "a part Of the Creators
designs; it does not occur in the lower ami.
mails, and must therefore have causes capa-
bic ofrenoval. One Of these, to speak only
ofwhatis related to the present ihquiry,is un-
questionably the inadequate protection. at
forded, especially among the poorer classes,
to the newborn infant, against the effects OF
the great and sudden transition which it
makes in passing at; once from high and
almost unyarying temperature in the. moth
ers womb, to one greatly inferior and; con.
stantly liable to change. At birth, the skin
is delicate, extremely vascular, and highly
susceptible Of impressions so much SO,
that cases have occurred in which a .leeeh-
bite has caused fatal hemorrhage. The
circulation is, in fact, cutaneous; for the
lungs, the, stomach, the liver, are as yet
new to life, and feeble in their functions. If
the infant, then, be rashly exposed to cold
atmosphere the,masss Of blood previously
circulating on the surface of the body is
Immediately driven inwards by the eontrac.
ton Of. the cutaneous.vessels, and, by over
stimulating the internal organs, gives rise to
bowel complaints, inflamnations, Group, or
convulsions, which sooner or later extln-,
guish life. This shows the, inexpressible
folly of those who bathe infants daily, in
cold water even in winter, and freely ex-
nose them to the open ar, or 10 currents
from open doors or windows, with a view
to harden theirconstitutiou when tits quite
certain that no more effectual means could
BE resorsed to In the earlier mouths Of life
TO undermine the general health and entail
future disease on. the unhappy subjects OF
the experiment. -
This hurtful practice has perhaps arisen
in some degree fom the prevalent error OF
supposins that infants have naturally a
great power Of generating heatSand resist
ingscoid. That the. very opposite is the
fact has been established by the experiments
OF DR.. Milne Edwards, which show that
..the power of producing heat IN warm
blooded ANIMALS is at its minimum at birth,
aid increases successiueb to: adult age"
and that instead of young ANIMALS beng
warmer than adults, they are generaIg a
degree or two colder, and part with their
heat more readily. III ten healthy infants,
from few days to two hours old. the mean
temperature was.obseryed by DR.. Edwards
to be only 94d. IS. Fabr., that Of adults
being 97d. or esd; and IN seven months
child three hours after birth, he found the
temperatune so low as, s9d. 6, although
the child was well clothed and near good
fire. 8 That exposure to cold is really so IN.
furious IN infancy is unhappigs proved by q
multitude of facts. In France, as already
alluded to inthe first chapter, it is the4cus-
tom to carry every infant, soon after birth,
to the-office of the naaire, that its bRth may
be registered. Suspechng that the expo
sure consequent upon such O practice must
be pernicious to health, especially in winter,
and where the distance IS great, Dr.. Ed
wards made inquiry, and on consulting the
returns made to the. Minister of the Interior,
found that the proportion Of deaths within
avery limited period after birth was much
greater i'm winter than in summer, and in the
northern thun in the southern departments
and on further inquiry be discovered that
the mortality was greater in parishes where
the inhabitants were scattered at distance
from the MARE, than where they were con.
gregated near him; SO that the number o
49, H. oa,,o oC