A MOTHER'S GUIDE IN HEALTH

AND DISEASE

BY NATHANIEL EDWARD DAVIES

LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY AND DISEASES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH, ETC.

PREFACE.

Of all unfortunate creatures born, the human infant, I believe, takes precedence, in the dangers and miseries it has to encounter in the first year of its existence, which are undoubtedly greater than those of any other living being. Nature, the best mother and the truest guide, has given to animal life instinct, and this seldom errs; but in the human race, this gift is assailed by fashion, prejudice, ignorance, and false teaching, frequently to the life-long detriment of the atom of humanity committed to its care.

When we wish to raise a splendid flower or a luscious fruit, we jealously guard the parent stem when it peeps above the ground; we then see it has warm, pure, and fresh air, and water at stated times, that it has earth suitable for its nourishment, and sun for its development; and having carefully tended it in its infant days, it is turned out into the world to fight the battle of its life. The plant that has received this care grows into the lofty tree, and repays by its fragrance or its fruit the toil expended in its rearing.

Is this the case with the infant ?

Vital statistics supply a melancholy answer, and the fact that a quarter of all infants born alive perish in their first year, is incontestable proof that the ignorance of mothers in the rearing of their offspring during the first few months of their existence is the cause of untold suffering and death, and this not only in the dwellings of the poor, but also in those of the middle and upper classes.

To be able to call skilled assistance in every trifling ailment