CHAPTER VII.DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD-BEARING WOMEN IN THEIR LYING-IN.
As soon as she is laid in her bed, let her be placed in it conveniently for ease and rest, which she stands in great need of, to recover herself of the great fatigue she underwent during her travail; and that she may lie the more easily let her hands and body be a little raised, that she may breathe more freely, and cleanse the better, especially of that blood which then comes away, that so it may not clot, which being restrained causeth great pain.
Having thus placed her in bed, let her take a draught of burnt white wine, having a drachm of spermaceti melted therein. The herb vervain is also singularly good for a woman in this condition, boiling it in what she either eats or drinks, fortifying the womb so exceedingly, that it will do more good in two days, than any other thing does in double that time, having no offensive taste. And this is no more than what she stands in need of; for her lower parts being greatly distended till the birth of the infant, it is good to endeavour the prevention of an inflammation there. Let there also be outwardly applied, all over the bottom of her abdomen and privities, the following anodyneand cataplasm: Take two ounces of oil of sweet almonds, and two or three new-laid eggs, yolks and whites, stirring them together in an earthen pipkin over hot embers, till they come to the consistence of a poultice; which being spread upon a cloth, must be applied to those parts, indifferently warm, having first taken away the closure (which was put to her presently after her delivery,) and likewise such clots of blood as were then left. Let this lie on five or six hours, and then renew it again as you see cause.
Great care ought to be taken at first, that if her body be very weak, she be not kept too hot, for extremity of heat weakens nature and dissolves the strength; and whether she be weak or strong, be sure that no cold air comes near her first; for cold is an enemy to the spermatic parts, and if it get into the womb, it increases the after-pains, causes swelling in the womb, and hurts the nerves. As to her diet, let it be hot, and let her eat but a little at a time. Let her avoid the light for the first three days, and longer if she be weak, for her labour weakens her eyes exceedingly, by a harmony between the womb and them. Let her also avoid great noise, sadness, and trouble of mind.
If the womb be foul, which may be easily perceived by the impurity of the blood (which will then easily come away in clots or stinking, of if you suspect any of the after-burden to be left behind, which may sometimes happen,) make her drink of featherfew, mugwort, pennyroyal, and mother of thyme, boiled in white wine and sweetened with sugar.
Panado and new-laid eggs are the best meat for her at first; of which she may eat oftenbut not too much at a time. And let her nurse use cinnamon in all her meats and drinks, for it generally strengthens the womb.
Let her stir as little as may be, till after the fifth, sixth, or seventh day of her delivery, if she be weak; and let her take as little meat as possible, for that tends to weaken her very much.
If she goes not well to stool, give a clyster made only with the decoction of mallows and a little brown sugar.
When she hath lain-in a week or more, let her use such things as close the womb, of which knot-grass and comfrey are very good; and to them you may add a little polypodium, for it will do her good, both leaves and root being bruised.
I. The first common and usual accident that troubles women in their lying-in, is after-pains. They proceed from cold and wind contained in the bowels, with which they are easily filled after labour, because then they have more room to dilate than when the child was in the womb, by which they were compressed; and also because nourishment and matter, contained as well in them as in the stomach, have been so confusedly agitated from side to side during the pains of labour, by the throes which always must compress the belly, that they could not be well digested, whence the wind is afterwards generated, and by consequence the gripes which the woman feels running in her bowels from side to side, according as the wind moves more or less, andsometimes likewise from the womb, because of the compression and commotion which the bowels make. These being generally the case, let us now apply a suitable remedy.
1. Boil an egg soft, and pour out the yolk of it: with which mix a spoonful of cinnamon-water, and let her drink it; and if you mix in it two grains of ambergris, it will be better; and yet vervain taken in any thing she drinks, will be as effectual as the other.
2. Give the lying-in woman, immediately after delivery, oil of sweet almonds and syrup of maiden-hair mixed together. Some prefer oil of walnuts, provided it be made of nuts that are very good; but it tastes worse than the other at best. This will lenify the inside of the intestines by unctuousness, and by that means bring away that which is contained in them more easily.
3. Take and boil onions well in water, then stamp them with oil of cinnamon, spread them on a cloth, and apply them to the region of the womb.
4. Let her be careful to keep her body warm, and not to drink too cold; and if the pain prove violent, hot cloths, from time to time, must be laid on her abdomen, or a pancake fried in walnut oil may be applied to it, without swathing her body too strait. And for the better evacuating the wind out of the intestines, give her a clyster, which may be repeated as often as necessity requires.
5. Take bay-berries, beat them to powder, put the powder upon a chafing-dish of coals, and let her receive the smoke of them up her privities.
6. Take tar and bear’s grease, of each an equal quantity, boil them together, and whilst it is boiling, add a little pigeon’s dung to it. Spread some of this upon a linen cloth, and apply it to the reins of the back of her that is troubled with after-pains, and it will give her speedy ease.
Lastly, Let her take half a drachm of bay-berries beaten into a powder in a draught of muscadel or tent.
II. Another accident to which women in child-bed are subject is the hemorrhoids, or piles, occasioned through the great straining in bringing the child into the world. To cure this,
1. Let her be let blood in the saphæna vein.
2. Let her use polypodium in her meat and drink, bruised and boiled.
3. Take an onion, and having made a hole in the middle of it, fill it full of oil, roast it, and having bruised it all together, apply it to the fundament.
4. Take a dozen of snails, without shells if you can get them, or else so many shell snails, and pull them out, and having bruised them with a little oil, apply them warm as before.
5. If she go not well to stool, let her take an ounce of cassia fistula drawn at night going to bed; she needs no change of diet after.
III. Retention of the menses is another accident happening to women in child-bed; and which is of so dangerous a consequence, that, if not timely remedied, it proves mortal. When this happens,
1. Let the woman take such medicines as strongly provoke the terms, such as dittany, betony,pennyroyal, featherfew, centuary, juniper-berries, peony roots.
2. Let her take two or three spoonfuls of briony water each morning.
3. Gentian roots beaten into a powder, and a drachm of it taken every morning in wine, are an extraordinary remedy.
4. The root of birthwort, either long or round, so used and taken as the former, are very good.
5. Take twelve peony seeds, and beat them into a very fine powder, and let her drink them in a draught of hot cardus posset, and let her sweat after. And if this last medicine do not bring them down the first time she takes it, let her take as much more three hours after, and it seldom fails.
IV. Overflowing of the menses is another accident incidental to child-bearing women. For which,
1. Take shepherd’s purse, either boiled in any convenient liquor, or dried and beaten into a powder, and it will be an admirable remedy to stop them, this being especially appropriated to the privities.
2. The flower and leaves of brambles, or either of them, being dried and beaten into a powder, and a drachm of them taken every morning in a spoonful of red wine, or in a decoction of leaves of the same (which perhaps is much better,) is an admirable remedy for the immoderate flowing of the terms in women.
V. Excoriations, bruises, and rents of the lower part of the womb are often occasioned by that violent distention and separation of the four carbuncles in a woman’s labour. For the healingwhereof, as soon as the woman is laid, if there be only simple contusions and excoriations, then let the anodyne cataplasms, formerly directed, be applied to the lower parts to ease the pain, made of the yolks and whites of new-laid egg and oil of roses, boiled a little over warm embers, continually stirring it till it is mixed, and then spread on a fine cloth; it must be applied very warm to the bearing-place for five or six hours, and when it is taken away, lay some fine rags, dipped in oil of St. John’s wort twice or thrice a day; also foment the parts with barley-water and honey of roses, to cleanse them from the excrements which pass.
VI. The curding and clotting of the milk is another accident which happens to women in child-bed; for, in the beginning of child-bed, the woman’s milk is not purified, because of the great commotions her body suffered during her labour, which affected all the parts, and it is then moved with many humours. Now this clotting of the milk does, for the most part, proceed from the breasts not being fully drawn, and that either because she has too much milk, and that the infant is too small and weak to suck all, or because she does not desire to be a nurse; for the milk, in those cases remaining in the breast after concoction, without being drawn, loseth the sweetness and the balsamic quality it had, and by reason of the heat it acquires, and the too long stay it makes there, it sours, curds, and clots, in like manner as we see runnet put into ordinary milk turn it into curds. The curding of the milk may be also caused by having taken a great cold, and not keeping the breast well covered.
But from what cause soever this curding of the milk proceeds, the most certain remedy is, speedily to draw the breasts until it is emitted and dried. But in regard that the infant, by reason of weakness, cannot draw strong enough, the woman being hard marked when her milk is curded, it will be most proper to get another woman to draw her breasts until the milk comes freely, and then she may give her child suck. And that she may not afterwards be troubled with a surplus of milk, she must eat such diet as gives but little nourishment, and keep her body open.
But if the case be such, that the woman neither can nor will be a nurse, it is necessary to apply other remedies for the curing of this distemper: for then it will be best not to draw the breasts: for that will be the way to bring more milk into them. For which purpose, it will be necessary to empty the body, by bleeding the arm: besides which, let the humours be drawn by strong clysters and bleeding in the feet: nor will it be amiss to purge gently; and to digest, dissolve, and dissipate the curded milk, apply a cataplasm of pure honey, or that of the four brains dissolved in a decoction of sage, milk, smallage, and fennel, mixing with it oil of camomile, with which oil let the breasts be well anointed. The following liniment is also good to scatter and dissipate the milk.
That the milk flowing back to the breast may without offence be dissipated, you must use this ointment; “Take pure wax two ounces, linseedhalf a pound; when the wax is melted, let the liniment be made, wherein linen cloths must be dipped, and, according to their largeness, be laid upon the breast; and when it shall be dispersed, and pains no more, let other linen cloths be dipped in the distilled water of acorns, and put them upon them.â€
Note.That the cloths dipped into distilled water of acorns must be used only by those who cannot nurse their own children: but if a swelling in the breast of her who gives suck do arise from abundance of milk, and threatens an inflammation, let her use the former ointment, but abstain from using the distilled water of acorns.
When the child’s navel-string hath been cut, according to the rules prescribed, let the midwife presently cleanse it from the excrements and filth it brings with it; of which some are within the body, as the urine in the bladder, and the excrements found in the guts; and others without, which are thick, whitish, and clammy, proceeding from the sliminess of the waters. There are children sometimes covered all over with this, that one would think they were rubbed over with soft cheese; and some women are of so easy a belief, that they really think it so, because they had eaten some while they were enceinte. From these excrements let the child becleansed with wine and water a little warmed, washing every part therewith, but chiefly the head, because of the hair, also on the folds of the groin, arm-pits, and privities; which parts must be gently cleansed with a linen rag, or a soft sponge, dipped in lukewarm wine. If this clammy or viscous excrement stick so close that it will not easily be washed off from those places, it may be fetched off with oil of sweet almonds, or a little fresh butter melted with wine, and afterwards well dried off; also make tents of fine rags, and wetting them in this liquor, clear the ears and nostrils; but for the eyes, wipe them only with a dry soft rag, and dipping it in the wine, lest it should make them smart.
The child being thus washed, and cleansed from the native blood and impurities which attend it into the world, it must in the next place be searched, to see whether all things be right about it, and that there is no fault or dislocation; whether it has suffered any violence by its birth, in any part of its body; and whether all the parts be well and duly shaped; that suitable remedies may be applied, if any thing be found not right. Nor is it enough to see that all be right without, and that the outside of the body be cleansed, but she must chiefly observe whether it dischargeth the excrements contained within, and whether the passage be open; for some have been born without having been perforated. Therefore, let her examine whether the conduits of the urine and stool be clear, for want of which some have died, not being able to void their excrements, because timely care was not taken at first. As to the urine, all children, as well males as females, domake water as soon as they are born, if they can, especially if they feel the heat of the fire, and sometimes also void the excrements, but not so soon as the urine. If the infant does not ordure the first day, then put up into its fundament a small suppository, to stir it up to be discharged, that it may not cause painful gripes by remaining so long in the belly. A sugar almond may be proper for this purpose, anointed over with a little boiled honey; or else a small piece of Castile-soap rubbed over with fresh butter; also give the child for this purpose a little syrup of roses or violets at the mouth, mixed with some oil of sweet almonds drawn without a fire, anointing the belly also with the same oil or fresh butter.
The midwife having thus washed and cleansed the child, according to the before-mentioned directions, let her begin to swaddle it in swathing clothes, and when she dresses the head, let her put small rags behind the ears to dry up the filth which usually engenders there, and so let her do also in the folds of the arm-pits and groin, and so swathe it; then wrap it up warm in a bed with blankets, which there is scarcely any woman so ignorant but knows well enough how to do: only let me give them this caution, that they swathe not the child too strait in its blankets, especially about the breast and stomach, that it may breathe the more freely, and not be forced to vomit up the milk it sucks, because the stomach cannot be sufficiently extended to contain it; therefore let its arms and legs be wrapped in its bed stretched and straight, and swathed to keep them so, viz, the arms along its sides, and its legs equally both together,with a little of the bed between them, that they may not be galled by rubbing each other; then let the head be kept steady and straight, with a stay fastened on each side of the blanket; and then wrap the child up in a mantle and blankets to keep it warm. Let none think this of swathing the infant is needless to set down, for it is necessary it should be thus swaddled, to give its little body a straight figure, which is most decent and proper for a man, and to accustom him to keep upon his feet, who otherwise would go upon all fours, as most other animals do.
This I mention first, as it is often the first and most common distemper which happens to little infants after their birth; many children being so troubled therewith, that it causes them to cry night and day, and at last die of it. The cause of it for the most part comes from the sudden change of their nourishment, for having always received it from the umbilical vessel whilst in the mother’s womb, they come on a sudden not only to change the manner of receiving it, but the nature and quality of what they receive, as soon as they are born; for instead of purified blood only, which is conveyed to them by means of the umbilical vein only, they are now obliged to be nourished by theirmother’s milk, which they suck with their mouths, and from which are engendered many excrements, causing gripes and pains; and not only because it is not so pure as the blood with which it was nourished in the womb, because the stomach and the intestines cannot make a good digestion, being unaccustomed to it. It is also caused sometimes by a rough phlegm, and sometimes by worms; for physicians affirm, that worms have been bred in children even in their mother’s womb.
Cure.—If it proceed from the too sudden change of nourishment, the remedy must be to forbear giving the child suck for some days, lest the milk be mixed with phlegm, which is then in the stomach corrupt: and at first it must suck but little, until it is accustomed to digest it. If it be the excrements in the intestines, which, by their long stay, increase these pains, give it at the mouth a little oil of sweet almonds and syrup of roses: if it be worms, lay a cloth dipped in oil of wormwood, mixed with ox-gall upon the belly, or a small cataplasm mixed with the powder of rue, wormwood, coloquintida, aloes, and the seeds of citron incorporated with ox-gall and the powder of lupines. Or give it oil of sweet almonds, with sugar-candy, and a scruple of aniseed: it purgeth new-born babes from green choler and stinking phlegm; and, if it be given with sugar-pap, it allays the griping pains of the belly. Also, anoint the belly with oil of dill, or pelitory stamp, with oil of camomile.
Sect. II.Of Weakness in newly-born Infants.
Weakness is an accident that many children bring into the world along with them, and is often occasioned by the labour of the mother; by the violence and length whereof they suffer so much, that they are born with great weakness, and many times it is difficult to know whether they are alive or dead, their body appearing so senseless and their face so blue and livid, that they seem to be quite choked; and even after some hours, their showing any signs of life is attained with weakness, that it looks like a return from death, and that they are still in a dying condition.
Cure.—Lay the infant speedily in a warm blanket, and carry it to the fire, and then let the midwife take a little wine in her mouth and spout it into its mouth, repeating it often, if there be occasion. Let her apply linen to the breast and belly dipped in wine, and let the face be uncovered, that it may breathe the more freely; also, let the midwife keep its mouth a little open, cleanse the nostrils with small linen tents dipped in white wine, that it may receive the smell of it; and let her chafe every part of its body well with warm cloths, to bring back its blood and spirits, which, being retired inwards, through weakness, often puts it in danger of being choked. By the application of these means, the infant will gradually recover strength, and begin to stir its limbs by degrees, and at length to cry; and though it be but weakly at first, yet afterwards, as it breathes more freely, its cry will become strong.
Sect. III.Of the Fundament being closed up in a newly-born Infant.
Another defect that new-born infants are liable to is, to have their fundaments closed up; by which they can never evacuate the new excrements engendered by the milk they suck, nor that which was amassed in their intestines before birth, which is certainly mortal without a speedy remedy. There have been some female children who have had their fundaments quite closed, and yet have voided the excrements of the guts by an orifice, which nature, to supply that defect, had made within the neck of the womb.
Cure.—Here we must take notice, that the fundament is closed two ways: either by a single skin, through which one may discover some black and blue marks, proceeding from the excrements retained, which, if one touch with the finger, there is a softness felt within, and thereabout it ought to be pierced; or else it is quite stopped by a thick fleshy substance, in such sort that there appears nothing without by which its true situation may be known. When there is nothing but the single skin which makes the closure, the operation is very easy, and the children may do very well; for then an aperture or opening may be made with a small incision-knife, cross ways, that it may the better receive a round form, and that the place may not afterwards grow together, taking care not to prejudice the sphincter or muscles of the rectum. The incision being thus made, the excrements will certainly have issue. But if, by reason of theirlong stay in the belly, they become so dry that the infant cannot void them, then let a clyster be given to moisten and bring them away; afterwards put a linen tent into the new-made fundament, which, at first, had best be anointed with honey of roses, and towards the end, with a drying cicatrizing ointment, such as unguentum album, or ponphilex, observing to cleanse the infant of its excrements, and dry it again as soon and as often as it evacuates them, that so the aperture may be prevented from turning into a malignant ulcer.
But if the fundament be stopped up in such a manner, that neither mark nor appearance of it can be seen or felt, then the operation is much more difficult; and even when it is done, the danger is much greater, that the infant will not survive it. Then if it be a female, and it sends forth its excrements by the way I have mentioned before, it is better not to meddle, than, by endeavouring to remedy an inconvenience, run an extreme hazard of the infant’s death. But when there is no vent for the excrements, without which death is unavoidable, then the operation is justifiable.
Operation.—Let the operator, with a small incision-knife that hath but one edge, enter into the void place, and turning the back of it upwards, within half a finger’s breadth from the child’s anus, which is the place where he will certainly find the intestine; let him thrust it forward, that it may be open enough to give free vent to the matter there contained, being especially careful of the sphincter; after which, let the wound be dressed according to the method directed.
Sect. IV.Of the Thrush, or Ulcers in the Mouth of the Infant.
This thrush is a distemper that children are very subject to, and it arises from bad milk, or from foul humour in the stomach; for sometimes, though there be not ill humour in the milk itself, yet it may corrupt the child’s stomach because of its weakness, or some other indisposition; in which, acquiring an acrimony instead of being well digested, there arise from thence biting vapours, which, forming a thick viscosity, do thereby produce this distemper.
Cure.—It is often difficult, as physicians tell us, because it is seated in hot and moist places, where the putrefaction is easily augmented; and because the remedies applied cannot lodge there, being soon washed with spittle. But if it arises from too hot quality in the nurse’s milk, care must be taken to temper and cool, prescribing her cool diet, bleeding and purging her also, if there be occasion.
Take lentiles husked, powder them, and lay a little of them upon the child’s gums. Or take bdellium flower half an ounce, and with oil of roses make a liniment. Also wash the child’s mouth with barley and plantain water, and honey of roses, or syrup of dry roses, mixing with them a little verjuice of lemons, as well to loosen and cleanse the vicious humours which cleave to the inside of the child’s mouth, as to cool those parts which are already over-heated. This may be done by means of a small fine rag fastened to the end of a little stick, and dipped therein, whereby the ulcers may be gently rubbed, beingcareful not to put the child in too much pain, lest an inflammation make the distemper worse. The child’s body must also be kept open, that the humours being carried to the lower parts, the vapours may not ascend, as it is usual for them to do when the body is costive, and the excrements too long retained.
If the ulcers appear malignant, let such remedies be used to do their work speedily, that the evil qualities that cause them being thereby instantly corrected, their malignity may be prevented; and in this case touch the ulcers with plantain water, sharpened with the spirits of vitriol; for the remedy must be made sharp according to the malignity of the distemper. It will be necessary to purge these ill humours out of the whole habit of the child, by giving half an ounce of succory with rhubarb.
The brain in infants is very moist, and hath many excrements which nature cannot send out at the proper passages; they get often to the ears, and there cause pains, flux of blood, with inflammation, and matter with pain; this in children is hard to be known, as they have no other way to make it known but by constant crying; you will perceive them ready to feel their ears themselves, but will not let others touch them if they can prevent it; and sometimes you may discern the parts above the ears to be very red.
These pains, if let alone, are of dangerous consequences, because they may bring forth watchingsand epilepsy; for the moisture breeds worms there, and fouls the spongy bones, and by degrees causes incurable deafness.
Cure.—Allay the pain with convenient speed, but have a care of using strong remedies. Therefore only use warm milk about the ears, with the decoction of poppy tops, or oil of violets: to take away the moisture, use honey of roses, and let aquamollis be dropped into the ears; or take virgin honey, half an ounce; red wine two ounces; alum, saffron, saltpetre, each a drachm; mix them at the fire; or drop in hemp seed oil with a little wine.
If there be no care taken to change and wash the child’s bed as soon as it is fouled with the excrements, and to keep the child very clean, the acrimony will be sure to cause redness, and beget a smarting in the buttocks, groin, and thighs of the child, which, by reason of the pain will afterwards be subject to inflammations, which follow the sooner, through the delicacy and tenderness of their skin, from which the outward skin of the body is in a short time separated and worn away.
Cure.—First, keep the child cleanly: and, secondly, take off the sharpness of its urine. As to keeping it cleanly, she must be a sorry nurse that needs to be taught how to do it; for if she lets it have but dry, clean, and warm beds, and clothes, as often and as soon as it has fouled and wet them, either by its urine or excrements, itwill be sufficient. And as to taking off the sharpness of the child’s urine, that must be done by the nurse’s taking a cool diet, that her milk may have the same quality; and therefore she ought to abstain from all things that may tend to heat it.
But besides these cooling and drying remedies are requisite to be applied to the inflamed parts; therefore let the parts be bathed with plantain water, with a fourth of lime-water added to it, each time the child’s excrements are wiped off; and if the pain be very great, let it only be fomented with lukewarm milk. Some kind of drying powder, or a little milldust strewed upon the parts affected, may be proper enough, and is used by many women. Also, unguentum album, or diapampholigos, spread upon a small piece of leather, in form of a plaster, will not be amiss.
But the chief thing must be the nurse’s taking great care to wrap the inflamed parts with fine rags when she opens the child, that those parts may not gather and be pained by rubbing together.
Vomiting in children proceeds sometimes from too much milk, and sometimes from bad milk, and as often from a moist loose stomach; for as dryness retains, so looseness lets go. This is, for the most part, without danger in children; and they that vomit from their birth are the lustiest; for the stomach not being used to meat, and milk being taken too much, crudities are easily bred, or the milk is corrupted; and it is better to vomit these up than to keep themin; but if vomiting last long, it will cause an atrophy, or consumption, for want of nourishment.
Cure.—If this be from too much milk, that which is emitted is yellow and green, or otherwise ill-coloured and stinking; in this case, mend the milk, as has been shown before; cleanse the child with honey of roses, and strengthen its stomach with syrup of milk and quinces made into an electuary. If the humours be hot and sharp, give the syrup of pomegranates, currants, and coral; and apply to the bowels the plaster of bread, the stomach cerate, or bread dipped in hot wine; or oil of mastich, quinces, mint, wormwood, each half an ounce; of nutmegs, by expression, half a drachm; chemical oil of mint, three drops. Coral hath an occult property to prevent vomiting, and is therefore hung about the neck.
This is a very great yet necessary evil in all children, having a variety of symptoms joined with it. They begin to come forth, not all at once, but one after the other, about the sixth or seventh month; the fore-teeth coming first, then the eye-teeth, and, last of all, the grinders. The eye-teeth cause more pain to the child than any of the rest, because they have a deep root, and a small nerve which hath communication with that which makes the eye move.
In the breeding of the teeth, first they feel an itching in their gums, then they are pierced as with a needle, and pricked by the sharp bones,whence proceed great pains, watching, inflammation of the gums, fever, looseness, and convulsions, especially when they breed their eye-teeth.
The signs when children breed their teeth are these.
1. It is known by the time, which is usually about the seventh month.
2. Their gums are swelled, and they feel a great heat there, with an itching, which makes them put their fingers into their mouths to rub them, a moisture also distils from the gums into the mouth, because of the pains they feel there.
3. They hold the nipple faster than before.
4. The gums are white when the teeth begin to come; and the nurse, in giving them suck, finds the mouth hotter, and that they are much changed, crying every moment, and cannot sleep, or but very little at a time.
The fever that follows breeding of teeth comes from choleric humours, inflamed by watching, pain, and heat. And the longer teeth are breeding, the more dangerous it is; so that many, in the breeding of them, die of fevers and convulsions.
Cure.—Two things are to be regarded:—one is, to preserve the child from the evil accidents that may happen to it by reason of the great pain; the other, to assist, as much as may be, the cutting of the teeth, when they can hardly cut the gums themselves.
For the first of these, viz. the preventing those accidents of the child, the nurse ought to take great care to keep a good diet and to use all things that may cool and temper milk, thatso a fever may not follow the pain of the teeth. And to prevent the humour from falling too much upon the inflamed gums, let the child’s belly be kept always loose by gentle clysters, if it be bound; though oftentimes there is no need of them, because they are at those times usually troubled with a looseness; and yet, for all that, clysters may not be improper.
As to the other, which is to assist in cutting the teeth; that the nurse must do from time to time by mollifying and loosening them, and by rubbing them with the fingers dipped in butter or honey; or let the child have a virgin-wax candle to chew upon; or anoint the gums with the mucilage of quince made with mallow-waters, or with the brains of a hare; also foment the cheeks with the decoction of althœa, and camomile flower and dill, or with the juice of mallows and fresh butter. If the gums are inflamed, add juice of nightshade and lettuce. I have already said, the nurse ought to take a temperate diet: I shall now only add, that barley-broth, water-gruel, raw eggs, prunes, lettuce, and endive, are good for her; but let her avoid salt, sharp, biting, and peppered meats and wine.
It is very common for infants to have the flux of the belly, or looseness, especially upon the least indisposition: nor is it to be wondered at, seeing their natural moistness contributes so much thereto; and even if it be so extraordinary violent, such are in a better state of health than those that are bound. The flux, if violent,proceeds from divers causes: as, 1. From breeding of the teeth, and it is then commonly attended with a fever, in which the concoction is hindered, and the nourishment corrupted. 2. From watching. 3. From pain. 4. From stirring up the humours by a fever. 5. When they suck or drink too much in a fever. Sometimes they have a flux without breeding of teeth, from inward cold in the guts or stomach that obstructs concoction. If it be from the teeth, it is easily known; for the signs in breeding of teeth will discover it. If it be from external cold, there are signs of other causes. If from a humour flowing from the head, there are signs of a catarrh, and the excrements are frothy. If crude and raw humours are voided, and there be wind, belching, and phlegmatic excrements; or if they be yellow, green, and stink, the flux is from a hot sharp humour. It is best in breeding of teeth when the belly is loose, as I have said before: but if it be too violent, and you are afraid it may end in a consumption, it must be stopped; and if the excrements that are voided be black, and attended with a fever, it is very bad.
Cure.—The remedy in this case is principally with respect to the nurse, and the condition of the milk must be chiefly observed; the nurse must be cautioned that she eat no green fruit, nor things of hard concoction. If the child suck not, remove the flux with such purges as leave the cooling quality behind them, as syrup of honey or roses, or a clyster. Take the decoction of millium, myrobalans, of each two or three ounces, with an ounce or two of syrup of roses, and make a clyster. After cleansing, ifit proceed from a hot cause, give syrup of dried roses, quinces, myrtles, with a little sanguis draconis. Also anoint with oil of roses, myrtles, mastich, each two drachms; with oil of myrtles and wax make an ointment. Or take red roses and moulin, of each a handful; cypress roots two drachms; make a bag, boil it in red wine, and apply it to the belly. Or, use the plaster of bread, or stomach ointment. If the cause be cold, and the excrements white, give syrup of mastich and quinces, with mint-water. Use outwardly mint, mastich, cummin; or take rose seeds an ounce; cummin, aniseeds, each two drachms; with oil of mastich, wormwood, and wax, make an ointment.
This is a distemper that is often fatal to young children, and frequently proceeds from the brain, as when the humours that cause it are bred in the brain, originating either from the parents, or from vapours and bad humours that twitch the membranes of the brain: it is also sometimes caused by other distempers, and by bad diet: likewise the toothache, when the brain consents, causes it, and so does a sudden fright. As to the distemper itself, it is as manifest and well enough known where it is; and as to the cause whence it comes, you may know by the signs of the disease whether it come from bad milk, or worms, or teeth; if these are all absent, it is certain that the brain is first affected; if it comes from the small-pox or measles, it ceasethwhen they come forth, if nature be strong enough.
Cure.—For the remedy of this grievous and often mortal distemper, give the following powder, to prevent it, to a child as soon as it is born: take male peony roots, gathered in the decrease of the moon, a scruple; with leaf gold make a powder; take peony roots a drachm; peony seeds, misteltoe of the oak, elk’s hoofs, amber, each a scruple; musk, two grains; make a powder. The best part of the cure is taking care of the nurse’s diet, which must be regular, by all means. If it be from corrupt milk provoke a vomit; to do which, hold down the tongue, and put a quill, dipped in sweet almonds, down the throat. If it come from the worms, give such things as will kill the worms. If there be a fever, with respect to that also, give coral smaraged with elk’s hoof. In the fit, give epileptic water, as lavender water, and rub with oil of amber, or hang a peony root, and elk’s hoof smaraged, about the child’s neck.
As to a convulsion, it is when the brain labours to cast out that which troubles it: the manner is in the narrow of the back, and fountain of the nerves; it is a stubborn disease, and often kills.
Wash the body, when in the fit, with decoction of althea, lily roots, peony and camomile flowerets, and anoint it with goose grease, orris, lilies, foxes, turpentine, mastich, storax, and calamint. The sun-flower is also very good, boiled in water, to wash the child.