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Summer Hygiene

Summer Hygiene image
Parent Issue
Day
26
Month
July
Year
1878
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

[From (he IndianapoliB Journal.] Instead of the usual sermón by the pastor at Plymouth Church, last evening, a lecture on "Summer Hygiëne" was delivered by Dr. William B. Fletcher. He was introduced in a few well-chosen words by Kev. Oscar 0. McOulloch, who expressed the opiDion j that it was the businees of the church to mingle minifitry and medicine, and announced that this lecture was the first of a series to be given at intervals on Sunday evenings upon similar subjects. Dr. Fletcher said no one could appreciate more keenly than himself the novelty of the situation, and when first asked to lecture in a church on Sunday he was somewhat shocked, as he had never been in a pulpit and rarely in a pew. Perhaps the very fact of addrcssing a congregation in a close room on such a hotevening was aviolation of one of the first laws of hygiëne which he would recommend ; but he would only speak to them for about half an hour, giving them the result of his study and experience amongst children. Onefourth of the children born die under the age of 5 years, and to a great extent this rate -of mortality was due to mismanagement. A newly-born chüd is very muoh like a leech ; it has a very good stomach and little else. A child raust have proper nutriment and proper rest. It must be freed from the regulation bandages which fashion has bound about young children. The custom of handing children about to be admired and petted prevenís them from having their proper rest. At the age of 1 year the child is ready almost at the elightest provocation to become the prey of disease. Instead of being supplied with the soft, pulpy, nutritious lood for which the stomach is designed, it is of ten aiven starchy f ood, which genders disease. Another source of disease is found in the custom of gtving children evening rides over damp sidewalks, and when there is a great deal of miasma in the air. The plunging of children into cold baths is one of the most fruitful sources of cholera, inflammation and intestinal disorders. The same causes result in the same effects with the ohildren of rich and poor parents. It is not constant hot or cold weather that cause i disease, but sudden changes of twenty or thirty degrees of temperature when children are unprotected and exposed are almost certain to produce the dreaded cholera inf antum, for the stomaeh of the child is almoit like a sieve. Vegetable food almost always undergoes in the stomach of the child fermentation instead of digestión. There is no objection to vegetable diet for adulta, but in the case of children the same food acts as a poison. Probably the most important and useful thing that could be done would be to go into the kitchen and teach mothers how to make children's food. Sick children should always be placed in the pleasantest and airiest room in the house, but this rule is very often neglected. Children require more than the regular three meáis a day, but good food should be given as often as called for, and they will digest it if they are healthy and have plenty of exercise. The best way to develop a child in form and muscle is to give it plenty of rest, exercise and good food at frequent intervals, never allow it to go with what is called ' ' an empty stomach. " The doctor concluded by advocating better sanitary laws, and a etrict enforcement of those we now have; also that a strict register of births and deaths should be kept, and said the aim of all good physicians should be the prevention as well as the cure of disease. He was disposed to think the Chinese had the right idea - they pay the doctor when they are well, and he pays them when they are sick.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus