Page 52 - My FlipBook

Teething. —
tation of teething upon the general system is very great, and
has been variously estimated by medical writers, from one
third, to one half, and even two thirds of those that die under
the age of two years- It is therefore proper and important,
that every parent should be aware of the danger attendant on
is the result of a well directed physical education. It is in the country
especially, that children strongly constituted are to be met with, who
undergo hardly any of the accidents of a painful dentition. This goof
state of health is owing to the plain diet observed by the mother or the
nurse, to the wholesome food she takes, to her rustic habits, in the strict
observation of those laws that are prescribed by nature in the use of ne-
cessaries, and in abstaining from whatever is proscribed. Her infant
being under a similar influenc3, will, in conformity to two very simple
reasons, enjoy a state of health most propitious to resist the infirmities to
which nature seems to have condemned it from its birth. Are we desir-
ous of obtaining sound minds? we must begin by framing robust bodies
by means of a good physical rearing. What I advance here is no para-
dox, especially since the Author of " Emile" has so eloquently refuted
former prejudices against the masculine education so anxiously recom-
mended by the sages who have written on the first age of life. The re-
sults of which I speak were remarkable among the most ancient people,
even the most nolished, provided they enjoyed a liberal government.
The more we imitate the simplicity of nature, the more peaceably will
her laws be accomplished, and the more will the improvement of our spe-
cies be advanced; in short, the nearer physical and moral man will reach
a high degree of perfection, the greater will be that quantum of happiness
it is in his power to attain. Let parents therefore attend with affection-
ate solicitude to the physical education of their children. Nature, which
is never ungrateful, will repay them for their trouble, and amply remu-
nerate them for having helped her to form men at once useful te them-
selves, to society, and more capable of enduring and resisting the miseries
of human life. Let parents frequently call to their aid the advice of a
respectable medical man, and by paying a due regard, give hirn a place
among th^ir best friends. That friend will recommend their giving
their children only such wholesome food as may strengthen them, with-
out fatiguing the organs of digestion, which are yet weak ; he will not
fail te pay more attention to the quality than the quantity, for sobriety
is, without contradiction, the parent of health. He will proscribe cakes,
all sorts of sugar-plumbs, or too highly seasoned, and heating made
dishes; such fruit as is unripe and acid, and which so often deranges the
digestion of children. He will advise, in addition, to use none but tem-
perate drink, neither too warm nor too cold. He finally will consider as
an essential thine, the free use in the open air, of their little limbs, yet in
a feeble state. The happy state of health that will result from this regi-
men will render the parent secure, because the cutting of the teeth will
take place sooner, and without occasioning any remarkable irregularity
in the organization. The case will be quite different with weak and de-
licate children born of debilitated parents, or of a weak constitution.
J. C. Gerbaux, Pensioned Surgeon to the Civil and Military Hospi-
tals of France.