note: Though Dr. C.'s remarks will apply more closely
to England in 1750, they are by no means inapplicable to the United
States in 1837.] I do it with the more pleasure because, though he wrote
almost a century ago, he urges the same general principles on which I
have all along been insisting: hence it will be seen that mine are no
new-fangled notions. His remarks refer to the young of every age, but
chiefly to early infancy and childhood. It will be found necessary, in
some instances, to abridge, but I shall endeavor not to misrepresent the
Doctor's views.

* * * * *

"Look over the bills of mortality. Almost half of those who fill up that
black list, die under five years of age; so that half the people that
come into the world go out of it again, before they become of the least
use to it or to themselves. To me, this seems to deserve serious
consideration.

"It is ridiculous to charge it upon nature, and to suppose that infants
are more subject to disease and death than grown persons; on the
contrary, they bear pain and disease much better--fevers especially; and
for the same reason that a twig is less hurt by a storm than an oak.

"In all the other productions of nature, we see the greatest vigor and
luxuriancy of health, the nearer they are to the egg or bud. When was
there a lamb, a bird, or a tree, that died because it was young? These
are under the immediate nursing of unerring nature; and they thrive
accordingly.

"Ought it not, therefore, to be the care of every nurse and every
parent, not only to protect their nurslings from injury, but to be well
assured that their own officious services be not the greatest evils the
helpless creatures can suffer?

"In the lower class of mankind, especially in the country, disease and
mortality are not so frequent, either among adults or their children.
Health and posterity are the portion of the poor--I mean the laborious.
The want of superfluity confines them more within the limits of nature;
hence they enjoy the blessings they feel not, and are ignorant of their
cause.

"In the course of my practice, I have had frequent occasion to be fully
satisfied of this; and have often heard a mother anxiously say, 'the
child has not been well ever since it has done puking and crying.'

"These complaints, though not attended to, point very plainly to the
cause. Is it not very evident that when a child rids its stomach of its
contents several t