Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-01-31
THE CARE OF INFANCY.

l was visiting a patient the
other day, when a baby some few
weeks old was brought into the cham
Der and placed in the lady's arms. ]
was called upon to admire it, imme-
diately began rolling up the child's
long clothes, exposing the little legs,
and then asked the family standing
around which was most to be admir-
ed-the pretty, chubby, little rose
colored legs, the handiwork of nature,
or the unnatural and abominable
long clothes, the work of some dress
maker. After a laugh at the oddity
of the question, the baby's legs were
of course the best thought Of Then
why on earth, said 1 , do you seek tO
destroy them why do you seek to
torture, to deform or kill the little
thing with all sorts of collie. and
cough, and eonvulsiOn I? Why put il
into the stocks ? Why treat it as an
Indian, that squares or flattens heI
child's head, or as q heather Chinese,
that cramps and cripples her child's
feet It is all alike bArDarity, cruel
ty, ignorance, and heathenishness.
Why should the child move its
arms, or its jaws, or its eyes, and yet
not be suffered to move its legs ?
Don't you know that legs were made
for motion. that the motion OF the
legs promotes the action of all the
functions of the body, aud helps to
preserve the little ones health
That there is a world of comfort in
being free to move all our limbs just
as we want Tie your own legs il
x-nu riaaOa bunIIa than, rof,r,a NTH
what you like-so as to prevent your
moving-and see what good it will do
your digestion, how comfortable it is.
And think if you can of any other
animal that gets its legs tied up and
bundled round-save and except man.
Don't you know that little child
laughs and talks as well as walks
with its legs ? Well, then, it does.
Pat the little roly-pely on its back
now tickle its ribs-and the little legs
play as many expressive antics as a
couple of harlequins are as merry
as two drumsticks. Don't you call
that laughing? 1 do. The legs and
the whole body laugh just as much as
the face. Now make it impatient.
Refuse to feed it, and see how the
young vixen kicks straight out q sue
cessiOn of indignant complaints.
action is eloquenee. says the great
est of poets. And as it is in health,
SO it is-only to a more marked ex-
tent-in illness-the motion and po-
sition of the child's legs are signifi.
cant. A single attack of stomach
ache will show at once what is meant.
Pursue the evil. If the child does
not sleep at the time land times al
most innumerable 1 have been re-
quested to drug such cases) you give
it poison in the shape Of Mrs. Wins
lows Soothing Syrup" an ounce of
which, is said, in an analysis in the
Medical Gazette, to contain one grain
of MoTphine-a dose of which for an
infant three months old, as prescribed
by Mrs. Winslow's printed directions ,
contains an amount of morphine
equal to ten drops of Ldudnuni. Ig-
norant quacks should prescribe for
innocent mothers This or some 9TH
er equally poisonous nOstrum, 1 say,
is given to the child. Thus it is that
opium eaters, drunkards, hypochon-
draics, epileptics, and maniacs are
made-to say nothing of those victims
who are quietly disposed of in a more
sudden manner.-HoHle and Hearth.