Searchlights on Health-The Science of Eugenics Part 38

1. OVER-WORKED MOTHERS.--Children born of over-worked mothers, are liable to a be dwarfed and puny race. However, their chances are better than those of the children of inactive, dependent, indolent mothers who have neither brain nor muscle to transmit to son or daughter. The truth seems to be that excessive labor, with either body or mind, is alike injurious to both men and women; and herein lies the sting of that old curse. This paragraph suggests all that need be said on the question whether pregnant women should or should not labor.

2. FOOLISHLY IDLE.--At least it is certain that they should not be foolishly idle; and on the other hand, it is equally certain that they should be relieved from painful laborious occupations that exhaust and unfit them for happiness. Pleasant and useful physical and intellectual occupation, however, will not only do no harm, but positive good.

3. THE BEST MAN AND THE BEST WOMAN.--The best man is he who can rear the best child, and the best woman is she who can rear the best child.

We very properly extol to the skies Harriet Hosmer, the artist, for cutting in marble the statue of a Zen.o.bia; how much more should we sing praises to the man and the woman who bring into the world a n.o.ble boy or girl. The one is a piece of lifeless beauty, the other a piece of life Including all beauty, all possibilities.

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WORDS FOR YOUNG MOTHERS.

The act of nursing is sometimes painful to the mother, especially before the habit is fully established. The discomfort is greatly increased if the skin that covers the nipples is tender and delicate.

The suction pulls it off leaving them in a state in which the necessary pressure of the child's lips cause intense agony. This can be prevented in a great measure, says Elizabeth Robinson Scovil, in _Ladies' Home Journal_, if not entirely, by bathing the nipples twice a day for six weeks before the confinement with powdered alum dissolved in alcohol; or salt dissolved in brandy. If there is any symptom of the skin cracking when the child begins; to nurse, they should be painted with a mixture of tannin and glycerine. This must be washed off before the baby touches them and renewed when it leaves them. If they are very painful, the doctor will probably order morphia added to the mixture. A rubber nipple s.h.i.+eld to be put on at the time of nursing, is a great relief. If the nipples are retracted or drawn inward, they can be drawn out painlessly by filling a pint bottle with boiling water, emptying it and quickly applying the mouth over the nipple. As the air in the bottle cools, it condenses, leaving a vacuum and the nipple is pushed out by the air behind it.

When the milk acc.u.mulates or "cakes" in the breast in hard patches, they should be rubbed very gently, from the base upwards, with warm camphorated oil. The rubbing should be the lightest, most delicate stroking, avoiding pressure. If lumps appear at the base of the breast and it is red swollen and painful, cloths wrung out of cold water should be applied and the doctor sent for. While the breast is full and hard all over, not much apprehension need be felt. It is when lumps appear that the physician should be notified, that he may, if possible, prevent the formation of abscesses.

While a woman is nursing she should eat plenty of nouris.h.i.+ng food--milk, oatmeal, cracked wheat, and good juicy, fresh meat, boiled, roasted, or broiled, but not fried. Between each meal, before going to bed, and once during the night, she should take a cup of cocoa, gruel made with milk; good beef tea, mutton broth, or any warm, nutritive drink. Tea and coffee are to be avoided. It is important to keep the digestion in order and the bowels should be carefully regulated as a means to this end. If necessary, any of the laxative mineral waters can be used for this purpose, or a teaspoonful of compound licorice powder taken at night. Powerful cathartic medicines should be avoided because of their effect upon the baby. The child should be weaned at nine months old, unless this time comes in very hot weather, or the infant is so delicate that a change of food would be injurious. If the mother is not strong her nurseling will sometimes thrive better upon artificial food than on its natural nourishment. By gradually lengthening the interval between the nursing and feeding the child, when it is hungry, the weaning can be accomplished without much trouble.

A young mother should wear warm underclothing, thick stockings and a flannel jacket over her night dress, unless she is in the habit of wearing an under vest. If the body is not protected by warm clothing there is an undue demand upon the nervous energy to keep up the vital heat, and nerve force is wasted by the attempt to compel the system to do what ought to be done for it by outside means.

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HOW TO HAVE BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN.

1. PARENTAL INFLUENCE.--The art of having handsome children has been a question that has interested the people of all ages and of all nationalities. There is no longer a question as to the influence that parents may and do exert upon their offspring, and it is shown in other parts of this book that beauty depends largely on the condition of health at the time of conception. It is therefore of no little moment that parents should guard carefully their own health as well as that of their children, that they may develop a vigorous const.i.tution.

There cannot be beauty without good health.

2. MARRYING TOO EARLY.--We know that marriage at too early an age, or too late in life, is apt to produce imperfectly developed children, both mentally and physically. The causes are self-evident: A couple marrying too young, they lack maturity and consequently will impart weakness to their offspring; while on the other hand persons marrying late in life fail to find that normal condition which is conducive to the health and vigor of offspring.

3. CROSSING OF TEMPERAMENTS AND NATIONALITIES.--The Crossing of temperaments and nationalities beautifies offspring. If young persons of different nationalities marry, their children under proper hygienic laws are generally handsome and healthy. For instance, an American and German or an Irish and German uniting in marriage, produces better looking children than those marrying in the same nationality. Persons of different temperaments uniting in marriage, always produces a good effect upon offspring.

4. THE PROPER TIME.--To obtain the best results, conception should take place only when both parties are in the best physical condition.

If either parent is in any way indisposed at the time of conception the results will be seen in the health of the child. Many children brought in the world with diseases or other infirmities stamped upon their feeble frames show the indiscretion and ignorance of parents.

5. DURING PREGNANCY.--During pregnancy the mother should take time for self improvement and cultivate an interest for admiring beautiful pictures or engravings which represent cheerful and beautiful figures. Secure a few good books ill.u.s.trating art, with some fine representations of statues and other attractive pictures. The purchase of several ill.u.s.trated an journals might answer the purpose.

6. WHAT TO AVOID.--Pregnant mothers should avoid thinking of ugly people, or those marked by any deformity or disease; avoid injury, fright and disease of any kind. Also avoid ungraceful position and awkward att.i.tude, but cultivate grace and beauty in herself. Avoid difficulty with neighbors or other trouble.

7. GOOD CARE.--She should keep herself in good physical condition, and the system well nourished, as a want of food always injures the child.

8. THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND.--The mother should read suitable articles in newspapers or good books, keep her mind occupied. If she cultivates a desire for intellectual improvement, the same desire will be more or less manifested in the growth and development of the child.

9. LIKE PRODUCES LIKE, everywhere and always--in general forms and in particular features--in mental qualities and in bodily conditions--in tendencies of thought and in habits of action. Let this grand truth be deeply impressed upon the hearts of all who desire or expect to become parents.

10. HEREDITY.--Male children generally inherit the peculiar traits and diseases of the mother and female children those of the father.

11. ADVICE.--Therefore it is urged that during the period of utero-gestation, especial pains should be taken to render the life of the female as harmonious as possible, that her surroundings should all be of a nature calculated to inspire the mind with thoughts of physical and mental beauties and perfections, and that she should be guarded against all influences, of whatever character, having a deteriorative tendency.

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[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BEAUTIFUL b.u.t.tERFLY.]

EDUCATION OF THE CHILD IN THE WOMB.

"A lady once interviewed a prominent college president and asked him when the education of a child should begin. 'Twenty-five years before it is born,' was the prompt reply."

No better answer was ever given to that question Every mother may well consider it.

1. THE UNBORN CHILD AFFECTED BY THE THOUGHTS AND THE SURROUNDINGS OF THE MOTHER.--That the child is affected in the womb of the mother, through the influences apparently connected with objects by which she is surrounded, appears to have been well known in ancient days, as well as at the present time.

2. EVIDENCES.--Many evidences are found in ancient history, especially among the refined nations, showing that certain expedients were resorted to by which their females, during the period of utero-gestation, were surrounded by the superior refinements of the age, with the hope of thus making upon them impressions which should have the effect of communicating certain desired qualities to the offspring. For this reason apartments were adorned with statuary and paintings, and special pains were taken not only to convey favorable impressions, but also to guard against unfavorable ones being made, upon the mind of the pregnant woman.

3. HANKERING AFTER GIN.--A certain mother while pregnant, longed for gin, which could not be gotten; and her child cried incessantly for six weeks till gin was given it, which it eagerly clutched and drank with ravenous greediness, stopped crying, and became healthy.

4. BEGIN TO EDUCATE CHILDREN AT CONCEPTION, and continue during their entire carriage. Yet maternal study, of little account before the sixth, after it, is most promotive of talents; which, next to goodness are the father's joy and the mother's pride. What pains are taken after they are born, to render them prodigies of learning, by the best of schools and teachers from their third year; whereas their mother's study, three months before their birth, would improve their intellects infinitely more.

5. MOTHERS, DOES G.o.d THUS PUT the endowment of your darlings into your moulding power? Then tremble in view of its necessary responsibilities, and learn how to wield them for their and your temporal and eternal happiness.

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6. QUALITIES OF THE MIND.--The Qualities of the mind are perhaps as much liable to hereditary transmission as bodily configuration.

Memory, intelligence, judgment, imagination, pa.s.sions, diseases, and what is usually called genius, are often very markedly traced in the offspring.--I have known mental impressions forcibly impressed upon the offspring at the time of conception, as concomitant of some peculiar eccentricity, idiosyncrasy, morbidness, waywardness, irritability, or proclivity of either one or both parents.

7. THE PLASTIC BRAIN.--The plastic brain of the foetus is prompt to receive all impressions. It retains them, and they become the characteristics of the child and the man. Low spirits, violent pa.s.sions, irritability, frivolity, in the pregnant woman, leave indelible marks on the unborn child.

8. FORMATION OF CHARACTER.--I believe that pre-natal influences may do as much in the formation of character as all the education that can come after, and that mothers may, in a measure, "will," what that influence shall be, and that, as knowledge on the subject increases, it will be more and more under their control. In that, as in everything else, things that would be possible with one mother would not be with another, and measures that would be successful with one would produce opposite results from the other.

9. A HISTORICAL ILl.u.s.tRATION.--A woman rode side by side with her soldier husband, and witnessed the drilling of troops for battle. The scene inspired her with a deep longing to see a battle and share in the excitements of the conquerors. This was but a few months before her boy was born, and his name was Napoleon.

10. A MUSICIAN.--The following was reported by Dr. F.W. Moffatt, in the mother's own language, "When I was first pregnant, I wished my offspring to be a musician, so, during the period of that pregnancy, settled my whole mind on music, and attended every musical entertainment I possibly could. I had my husband, who has a violin, to play for me by the hour. When the child was born, it was a girl, which grew and prospered, and finally became an expert musician."

11. MURDEROUS INTENT.--The mother of a young man, who was hung not long ago, was heard to say: "I tried to get rid of him before he was born; and, oh, how I wish now that I had succeeded!" She added that it was the only time she had attempted anything of the sort; but, because of home troubles, she became desperate, and resolved that her burdens should not be made any greater. Does it not seem probable that the murderous intent, even though of short duration, was communicated to the mind of the child, and resulted in the crime for which he was hung?

12. THE a.s.sa.s.sIN OF GARFIELD.--Guiteau's father was a man of integrity and conquerable intellectual ability. His children were born in quick succession, and the mother was obliged to work very hard. Before this child was born, she resorted to every means, though unsuccessful, to produce abortion. The world knows the result. Guiteau's whole life was full of contradictions. There was little self-controlling power in him; no common sense, and not a vestige or remorse or shame. In his wild imagination, he believed himself capable of doing the greatest work and of filling the loftiest station in life. Who will dare question that this mother's effort to destroy him while in embryo was the main cause in bringing him to the level of the brutes?

13. CAUTION.--Any attempt, on the part of the mother, to destroy her child before birth, is liable, if unsuccessful, to produce murderous tendencies. Even harboring murderous thoughts, whether toward her own child or not, might be followed by similar results.