Part 42 (1/2)

2. HEREDITARY EFFECTS.--Those who are born to become insane do not necessarily spring from insane parents, or from any ancestry having any apparent taint of lunacy in their blood, but they do receive from their progenitors certain impressions upon their mental and moral, as well as their physical beings, which impressions, like an iron mould, fix and shape their subsequent destinies. Hysteria in the mother may develop insanity in the child, while drunkenness in the father may impel epilepsy, or mania, in the son. Ungoverned pa.s.sions in the parents may unloose the furies of unrestrained madness in the minds of their children, and the bad treatment of the wife may produce sickly or weak-minded children.

3. The influence of predominant pa.s.sion may be transmitted from the parent to the child, just as surely a similarity of looks. It has been truly said that ”the faculties which predominate in power and activity in the parents, when the organic existence of the child commences, determine its future mental disposition.” A bad mental condition of the mother may produce serious defects upon her unborn child.

4. The singular effects produced on the unborn child by the sudden mental emotions of the mother are remarkable examples of a kind of electrotyping on the sensitive surfaces of living forms. It is doubtless true that the mind's action in such cases may increase or diminish the molecular deposits in the several portions of the system.

The precise place which each separate particle a.s.sumes in the new organic structure may be determined by the influence of thought or feeling. Perfect love and perfect harmony should exist between wife and husband during this vital period.

5. AN ILl.u.s.tRATION.--If a sudden and powerful emotion of a woman's mind exerts such an influence upon her stomach as to excite vomiting, and upon her heart as almost to arrest its motion and induce fainting, can we believe that it will have no effect upon her womb and the fragile being contained within it? Facts and reason then, alike demonstrate the reality of the influence, and much practical advantage would result to both parent and child, were the conditions and extent of its operations better understood.

6. Pregnant women should not be exposed to causes likely to distress or otherwise strongly impress their minds. A consistent life with worthy objects constantly kept in mind should be the aim and purpose of every expectant mother.

TEN HEALTH RULES FOR BABIES CUT DEATH RATE IN TWO.

Ninety-four babies out of every thousand born in New York died last year. Only thirty-eight babies died in Montclair, N.J., out of every thousand born during the same period. Much credit for this low rate of infant mortality in the latter city is given the Montclair Day Nursery which prescribes the following decade of baby health rules:

1. Give a baby pure milk and watch its feeding very closely.

2. Keep everything connected with a baby absolutely clean. Cleanliness in the house accounts for a baby's health. Untidy babies are usually sick babies.

3. Never let a baby get chilled. Keep its hands and feet warm.

4. Regulate a baby's day by the clock. Everything about its wants should be attended to on schedule time.

5. Diminish a baby's food the minute signs of illness appear. Most babies are overfed anyway.

6. Weigh a baby every week until it is a year old. Its weight is an index of its health.

7. Every mother should get daily out-door exercise. It means better health for her babies.

8. Every baby should be ”mothered” more and mauled less. Babies thrive on cuddling but they can get along on a lot less kissing.

9. Don't amuse or play with your baby too much. Its regular daily routine is all the stimulation its little brain needs at first.

10. Don't let too many different people take care of the baby. Even members of the same family make a baby nervous if they fuss around him too much.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAN WITH SCALES AND INFANT.]

THE CARE OF NEW-BORN INFANTS.

1. The first thing to be done ordinarily is to give the little stranger a bath by using soap and warm water. To remove the white material that usually covers the child use olive oil, goose oil or lard, and apply it with a soft piece of worn flannel, and when the child is entirely clean rub all off with a fresh piece of flannel.

2. Many physicians in the United States recommend a thorough oiling of the child with pure lard or olive oil, and then rub dry as above stated. By these means water is avoided, and with it much risk of taking cold.

3. The application of brandy or liquor is entirely unnecessary, and generally does more injury than good.