Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1872-01-18
Freezing Babies.

Contributor, and though its statements
certainly are startling, We print them as
,hev stand, trusting that the author will
not leave our families thus divided by in
Compatibility of temperature, but soon
wilI suggest practicable remedy for the
uncomfortable state of things he de-
scrbes:
When the poor Esquimaux mother
finds her narrow cabin becoming too
crowded, the latest conner is tendcrly
carried to some retired spot, and care
fully put away in snow-bank.
The season is now at hand when many
Christian parents will likewise carry their
little ones to untimely burial not to die,
but already dead, from exposure to cold.
Their deaths will not be deliberately
sought. Indeed, each mothers heart
NAV rebel against the supposed decree OF
a mysterious Providence whereby she is
hereft Not the less certain, however,
will the little victims perish without just
cause.
Affection may carve on each small
headstone rosebud snapt from the
parent stem, and Piety write underneath
the soothing words: "Suficr little chill
dren to come unto Me-" But sentiment
and piety will be invoked to comfort
parents for a loss due wholly to their
ignorance or neglect.
mposSiJleI Ask your family physician.
have nothing to say now against insult
fcient clothing-fashionab nakedness it
might properly be called The way
some silly mothers expose their children
is cruelty as deliberate as the Esquimaux's
bed of snow. 1t is the unintentional
freezing of babies by Christian parents to
which | wish now to call attention.
Do you know, madam, what is the eli
mate your baby on the floor suffers in cold
weather
You point to the thermometer standing
at summer heat, the thick carpet, and the
careful prevention of drafts, and trium-
phantly reply: "The same climate that
| enj0y, TO be sure I"
You never were more grievously mis-
taken. Lower your thermometer slowly
from its place on the wall or mantel- piece,
some bitter, cold day, and unless your
house is marvel of good construction,
you may see the mercury fall ten degrees
for every foot that the instrument APP
proaches the floor. Your face burns with
tropic heat from the generous furnace I;
your creeping babe may be experiencing
almost arctic cold.
Nv attention was called to these con
trasts of temperature, especially in rooms
heated with hot air, during the severe
weather of last winter. | was spending
a few days with friend in neighboring
city. The house was modern built, Of
brick, warmly carpcted, and heated by a
furnace in the basement.
{" can't see why the children are so
fretful" complained the mother soon after
my arrival at is not natural for them
to be so peevish: and though both OF
them have a slight cold, neither appears
to be really sick"
Feel of their hands. They are like
ice. Anyone would complain with hands
as cold as that
Il know they are cold; but what can |
do? 1t can't be for lack of clothing.
Look at these thick flannels. Nor be
cause the room is not sufficiently heated;
the thermometer stands at summer heat,
and notice what torrents of hot air come
in at the re listers Pm sure we burn coal
enough!"
There was no visible reason why the
children should not be warm; but warm
they evidently were not / wondered
especially to see Master George, usually
full of life and play, now wandering fret
fully about or lying drearily curled up
on the sofa. Towake him up, proposed
game of ninc-pns. A few minutes
spent on the carpet in the children's at
mosphere made painfully plain the reason
of their blue hands and fretfulness. 1t
was fearfully cold down there.
| could scarcely believe my senses until
the thermometer verified their report
Where it hung above the mantel-piecc the
mercury stood at - deg. Suspended
from the gas fxture-no gas burnIng-it
rose rapidly to s. deg, and the tempera-
ture seemed to increase at an equal rate
toward the high ceiling, where it must
have been upward of 100 deg
Toward the floor the decline was
surprisingly rapid. Level with the
seat of an ordinary chair the tenn
perature was 5jo; on the floor, in the
middle r. the room, it was 406; on the
side of the room, furthest from the regis
ter, and facing a window where radiation
was greatest. the thermometer on the floor
fell rapidly to 49, have no doubt that
more than once during the preceding cold
DAYS the children had spent the most OF
their time in an atmosphere ranging in
temperature from 400 to below the freez-
ing point of water; and the mother won
dered that they were fretful!
The real cause of wonder was that they
did not die.
The house stood in the middle OF a
. block, and was far above the average IN
structure, furnishing, and facilities Tor
heating; but like most houses, its ventila-
ton was precisely what it should not nave
been. If the registers had supplied air
red hot. the floor would have been cold.
1t is popularity supposed that II vol o.,
ume of hot air is let into room, II VIII
rapidly share its heat with that already
there, until the temperature OF the room
is uniform throughout. If this were true,
the problem of heating rooms would -, DC
simple enough; but it is not true. ne
upper part of a room may be uncomior'-
ably hot, while water is freezing on tne
floor. have experienced such 0ndi-
ton of things in low ceiled school-rooms
in very cold weather, not for few MN
utes at time, but for days together
The only way to let fresh air into my
sleeping room Is to open a window; 1t il
my custom I'd keep the upper sash low.
cred, more or less, all the time. Las'
winter, water froze in pitcher siahdine
on the floor, within six feet OF the IRE
place. where there was sufficient hfe !.