AN
ESSAY
UPON
NURSING,
AND THE
MANAGEMENT of CHILDREN,
From their BIRTH to Three Years of Age.
By WILLIAM CADOGAN of Bristol, M. D.
In a LETTER to one of the Governors of
the FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.
Published by Order of the General Committee for
transacting the Affairs of the said Hospital.
The Fifth EDITION, with ADDITIONS.
LONDON, Printed:
PHILADELPHIA: Re-printed and Sold by
WILLIAM and THOMAS BRADFORD, at the London
Coffee-House.
MDCCLXXIII. 

 
 

SIR, 
IT is with great pleasure I see at last the
preservation of children become the care
of men of sense: It is certainly a matter
that well deserves their attention, and, I
doubt not, the public will soon find the good
and great effects of it. The Foundling Hospi-
tal may be of more use to the world, than was
perhaps at first imagined by the promoters of it;
it will be a means not only of preventing the
murder of many, but of saving more, by in-
troducing a more reasonable and more natural
method of Nursing. In my opinion, this
business has been too long fatally left to the
management of women, who cannot be sup-
posed to have proper knowledge to fit them
for such a task, notwithstanding they look up-
on it to be their own province. What I mean,
is a philosophic knowledge of nature, to be
acquired only by learned observation and expe-
rience, and which therefore the unlearned must
be incapable of. They may presume upon the
examples and transmitted customs of their
great grand-mothers, who were taught by the
Physicians of their unenlightened days; when
Physicians, as appears by late discoveries, were
mistaken in many things; being led away by
A2 hypo- 

(4)
hypothetical reasonings to entertain very wild
conceits, in which they were greatly bewil-
dered themselves, and misled others to believe,
I know not what strange unaccountable pow-
ers in certain herbs, roots, and drugs; and
also in some superstitious practices and cere-
monies; for all which notions, there being no
real foundation in nature, they ought to be
looked upon as the effects of ignorance, or
the artifices of designing Quacks; who found
their account, by pretending to great know-
ledge in these occult qualities, and imposing
upon the credulous. The Art of Physick has
been much improved within this last century;
by observing and following nature more close-
ly, many useful discoveries have been made,
which help us to account for things in a na-
tural way, that before seemed mysterious and
magical; and which have consequently made
the practice of it more conformable to reason
and good sense. This being the case, there is
great room to fear, that those Nurses who yet
retain many of these traditional prejudices, are
capitally mistaken in their management of
children in general, and fancying that nature
has left a great deal to their skill and contri-
vance, often do much harm, where they intend
to do good. Of this I shall endeavour to con-
vince them, by shewing, how I think chil-
dren may be cloathed, fed, and managed with
much less trouble to their Nurses, and infi-
nitely greater ease and comfort to the little
ones.
THE Foundlings under the care of the Hos-
pital, I presume, will be bred in a very plain,
simple manner: They will therefore infallibly
have

(5)
have the more health, beauty, strength, and
spirits; I might add understanding too, as all
the faculties of the mind are well known to
depend upon the organs of the body; so that
when these are in good order, the thinking
part is most alert and active; the contrary,
when they are disturbed or diseased. When
these advantages appear in favour of children
so brought up, as I am confident in time they
will, it may serve to convince most Nurses,
Aunts, Grand-mothers, &c. how much they
have hitherto been in the wrong, what mis-
chief is done to children, and what multitudes
are destroyed or spoiled, as well by cramming
them with cakes, sweetmeats, &c. till they
soul their blood, choak their vessels, pall the
appetite, and ruin every faculty of their bo-
dies; as by cockering and indulging them to
the utter perversion of their naturally good
temper, till they become quite froward and
indocile.
WHEN a man takes upon him to contradict
received opinions and prejudices sanctified by
time, it is expected he should bring valid
proof of what he advances. The truth of
what I say, that the treatment of children in
general is wrong, unreasonable, and unnatural,
will in great measure appear, if we but consider
what a puny valetudinary race most of our
people of condition are; chiefly owing to bad
Nursing, and bad habits contracted early. But
let any one, who would be fully convinced of
this matter, look over the Bills of Mortality;
there he may observe, that almost half the
number of those, that fill up that black list,
die under five years of age: So that half the
people 

(6)
people that come into the world, go out of it
again before they become of the least use to it,
or themselves. To me, this seems to deserve
serious consideration; and yet I cannot find,
that any one man of sense, and public spirit,
has ever attended to it at all; notwithstanding
the maxim in every one's mouth, that a mul-
titude of inhabitants is of the greatest strength
and best support of a commonwealth. The
misconduct, to which I must impute a great
part of the calamity, is too common and ob-
vious to engage the idle and speculative, who are
to be caught only by very refined researches;
and the busy part of mankind, where their
immediate interest is not concerned, will al-
ways overlook what they see daily: It may be
thought a natural evil, and so is submitted to
without examination. But this is by no means
the case; and where it is entirely owing to
mismanagement, and possibly may admit of a
remedy, it is ridiculous to charge it upon na-
ture, and suppose, that infants are more sub-
ject to disease and death than grown persons;
on the contrary, they bear pain and disease
much better, fevers especially, (as is plain in
the case of the small-pox, generally most fa-
vourable to children) 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 vigour and luxuriancy of
health, the nearer they are to the egg or the
bud: They are indeed then most sensible of
injury, and it is injury only that destroys them.
When was there a lamb, a bird, or a tree
that died because it was young? These are un-
der the immediate Nursing of unerring nature,
and 

(7)
and they thrive accordingly. Ought it not
therefore to be the care of every Nurse and
every Parent, not only to protect their Nurse-
lings from injury, but to be well assured that.
their own officious services be not the greatest
the helpless creatures can suffer?
IN the lower class of mankind, especially in
the country, disease and mortality are not so
frequent, either among the adult, 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 blessings
they feel not, and are ignorant of their cause.
The mother who has only a few rags to cover
her child loosely, and little more than her own
breast to feed it, sees it healthy and strong,
and very soon able to shift for itself; while the
puny infect, the heir and hope of a rich fa-
mily lies languishing under a load of finery,
that overpowers his limbs, abhorring and
rejecting the dainties he is crammed with,
till he dies a victim to the mistaken care and
tenderness; of his fond mother. 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 their cause. Is it not very evident,
that when a child rids its stomach several
times in a day, that it has been overloaded?
when it cries, from the incumbrance and con-
finement of its cloaths, that it is hurt by them?
While the natural strength lasts (as every child
is born with more health and strength than is
generally 

(8)
generally imagined) it cries at, or rejects the
superfluous load, and thrives apace: that is,
grows very fat, bloted, and distended beyond
measure; like a house lamb. But in time,
the same oppressive cause continuing, the na-
tural powers are overcome, being no longer
able to throw off the unequal weight; the
child, now not able to cry any more, lan-
guishes and is quiet. The misfortune is, these
complaints are not understood; it is swaddled
and crammed on, 'till after gripes, purging, &c.
it sinks under both burdens into a convulsion
sir, and escapes any further torture. This
would be the case with the lamb, was it not
killed when it is full fat.
THAT the present method of Nursing is
wrong, one would think needed no other proof
than the frequent miscarriages attending it, the
death of many, and ill health of those that
survive. But the persuading you of it may be
a needless task; if you have ever thought about
it, I doubt nor but you are already convinced
it is so. However, since you desire my senti-
ments upon the subject, taking it for granted
you think with me, that most of our Nurses
are got into a wrong method, I will endea-
vour, in as few words as possible, to tell you
what I think a right one.
YOU perceive, Sir, by the hints I have al-
ready dropped, what I am going to complain of
is, that children in general are over-cloathed
and over-fed, and fed and cloathed improperly.
To these causes I impute almost all their dis-
eases. But to be a little more explicit. The first
great mistake is, that they think a new-born
infant cannot be kept too warm; from this
prejudice 

(9)
prejudice they load and bind it with flannels,
wrappers, swathes, stays, &c. commonly
called cloaths; which all together are almost
equal to its own weight: by which means a
healthy child in a month's time is made so
tender and chilly, it cannot bear the external
air; and if, by any accident of a door or
window left carelessly open too long, a re-
freshing breeze be admitted into the suffocat-
ing atmosphere of the lying-in bed-chamber,
the child and mother sometimes catch irreco-
verable colds. But what is worse than this,
at the end of the month, if things go on ap-
parently well, this hot bed plant is sent out
into the country, to be reared in a leaky
house, that lets in wind and rain from every
quarter. Is it any wonder the child never
thrives afterwards? The truth is, a new-born
child cannot well be too cool and loose in its
dress; it wants less cloathing than a grown
person, in proportion; because it is naturally
warmer, as appears by the thermometer; and
would therefore bear the cold of a winter's
night, much better than any adult person
whatever. There are many instances both an-
cient and modern of infants exposed and de-
serted, that have lived several days. As it
was the practice of ancient times, in many
parts of the world, to expose all those, whom
the parents did not care to be encumbered
with; that were deformed or born under evil
stars; not to mention the many foundlings
picked up in London streets. These instances
may serve to shew, that nature has made
children able to bear even great hardships,
before they are made weak and sickly by their
B mistaken

(10)
mistaken Nurses. But besides the mischief
arising from the weight and heat of these
swaddling-cloaths, they are put on so tight,
and the child is so cramped by them, that its
bowels have not room, nor the limbs any
liberty, to act and exert themselves in the
free easy manner they ought. This is a very
hurtful circumstance, for limbs that are not
used, will never be strong, and such tender bo-
dies cannot bear much pressure: The circu-
lation restrained by the compression of any
one part, must produce unnatural swellings
in some other; especially as the fibres of in-
fants are so easily distended. To which doubt-
less are owing the many distortions and de-
formities we meet with every where; chiefly
among women, who suffer more in this par-
ticular than the men. I would recommend
the following dress: A little flannel waistcoat
without sleeves, made to fit the body, and
tie loosely behind; to which there should be a
petticoat sewed, and over this a kind of gown
of the same materials, or any other, that is light,
thin and flimsy. The petticoat should not be
quite so long as the child, the gown a few
inches longer; with one cap only on the
head, which may be made double, if it be
thought not warm enough. What I mean is,
that the whole coiffure should be so contrived,
that it might be put on at once, and neither
bind nor press the head at all: The linnen as
usual. This I think would be abundantly
sufficient for the day; laying aside all those
swathes, bandages, stays and contrivances,
that are most ridiculously used to close and keep
the head in its place, and support the body.
As

(11)
As if nature, exact nature, had produced her
chief work, a human creature, so carelessly
unfinished, as to want those idle aids to make
it perfect. Shoes and stockings are very need-
less incumbrances, besides that they keep the
legs wet and nasty, if they are not changed
every hour, and often cramp and hurt the
feet: a child would stand firmer, and learn
to walk much sooner without them. I think
they cannot be necessary 'till it runs out in the
dirt. There should be a thin flannel shirt
for the night, which ought to be every way
quite loose. Children in this simple, pleasant
dress, which may be readily put on and off
without teazing them, would find themselves
perfectly easy and happy, enjoying the free
use of their limbs and faculties, which they
would very soon begin to employ, when they
are thus left at liberty. I would have them
put into it as soon as they are born, and con-
tinued in it, 'till they are three years old;
when it may be changed for any other more
genteel and fashionable: though I could wish it
was not the custom to wear stays at all; not
because I see no beauty in the sugarloaf shape,
but that I am apprehensive, it is often procur'd
at the expence of the health and strength of
the body. There is an odd notion enough
entertained about change, and the keeping of
children clean. Some imagine that clean lin-
nen and fresh cloaths draw, and rob them of
their nourishing juices. I cannot see that they
do any thing more than imbibe a little of that
moisture which their bodies exhale. Were
it, as I supposed, it would be of service to
them; since they are always too abundantly
B2 supplied, 

(12)
supplied, and therefore I think they cannot be
changed too often, and would have them clean
every day; as it would free them from stinks
and sournesses, which are not only offensive,
but very prejudicial to the tender state of in-
fancy.
THE feeding of children properly is of
much greater importance to them than their
cloathing. We ought to take great care to be
right in this material article, and that nothing
be given them, but what is wholesome and
good for them, and in such quantity, as the
body calls for towards its support and growth;
not a grain more. Let us consider what
nature directs in the case: If we follow na-
ture, instead of leading or driving it, we can-
not err. In the business of Nursing, as well
as Physic, art is ever destructive, if it does
not exactly copy this original. When a
child is first born, there seems to be no pro-
vision at all made for it; for the mother's
milk, as it is now managed, seldom comes
till the third day, so that, according to this
appearance of nature, a child would be left
a day and a half, or two days without any
food. Were this really the case, it would
be a sufficient proof that it wanted none; as
indeed it does not immediately; for it is born
full of blood, full of excrement, it's appetites
not awake, nor it's senses opened; and re-
quires some intermediate time of abstinence
and rest to compose and recover the struggle
of the birth, and the change of circulation
(the blood running into new channels) which
always put it into a little fever. However
extraordinary this might appear, I am sure it
would 

(13)
would be better, that the child was not fed
even all that time, than as it generally is fed;
for it would sleep the greatest part of the time,
and, when the milk was ready for it, would
be very hungry and suck with more eager-
ness; which is often necessary, for it seldom
comes freely at first. But let me endeavour
to reconcile this difficulty, that a child should
be born thus apparently unprovided for. I
say apparently, for in reality it is not so. Na-
ture neither intended that a child should be
kept so long fasting, nor that we should feed
it for her. Her design is broke in upon, and
a difficulty raised, that is wholly owing to
mistaken management. The child, as soon
as it is born, is taken from the mother, and
not suffered to suck till the milk comes of it-
self; but is either fed with strange and im-
proper things, or put to suck some other wo-
man, whose milk flowing in a full stream,
overpowers the new-born infant, that has not
yet learned to swallow, and sets it a coughing,
or gives it the hiccup: the mother is left to
struggle with the load of her milk, unassisted
by the sucking of the child. Thus two great
evils are produced, the one a prejudice to the
child's health: the other, the danger of the
mother's life, at least the retarding her re-
covery; by causing what is called a milk fe-
ver; which has been thought to be natural,
but so far from it, that it is entirely owing to
this misconduct. I am confident, from ex-
perience, that there would be no fever at all,
were things managed rightly: Were the child
kept without food of any kind, till it was
hungry, which it is impossible it should be
just 

(14)
just after the birth, and then applied to the
mother's breasts; it would suck with strength
enough, after a few repeated trials, to make
the milk slow gradually, in due proportion to
the child's unexercised faculty of swallow-
ing, and the call of its stomach. Thus the
child would not only provide for itself the
best of nourishment, but, by opening a free
passage for it, would take off the mother's
load, as it increased, before it could oppress
or hurt her; and therefore effectually prevent
the fever; which is caused only by the pain-
ful distention of the lacteal vessels of the
breasts, when the milk is injudiciously suffered
to accumulate. Here let me describe a case
of pure nature, in order to illustrate this ma-
terial point yet further. When a healthy,
young woman lies in of her first child, be-
fore the operations of nature have been per-
verted by any absurd practices, her labour
would be strong, and, as I have chose to in-
stance in the case of a first child, perhaps
difficult; but in a few minutes after her de-
livery, she and her child, if it be not in-
jured, would fall into a sweet sleep of six or
seven hours: the mother would awake re-
freshed, the child hungry: a little thin broth
with bread or some such light food should be
then given her, and soon after, the child be
put to suck: in one hour or two the milk
would infallibly slow; and, if nothing else be
given it, the child would grow strong, and
she recover perfectly in a few days. This is
the constant course of nature, which is very
little attended to, and never followed. The
general practice is, as soon as a child is born,
to

(15)
to cram a dab of butter and sugar down its
throat, a little oil, panade, caudle, or some
such unwholsome mess. So that they set out
wrong, and the child stands a fair chance of
being made sick from the first hour. It is the
custom or some to give a little roast pig to an
infant; which, it seems, is to cure it of all the
mother's longings. I wish these matters were
a little more enquired into, for the honour of
the sex; to which many imperfections of this
kind are imputed, which I am sure it does not
lie under.
HERE I may be asked what is to be done with
a child born sick, that instead of sleeping,
cries incessantly from the birth, and is hardly
to be quieted by any means. Let good care
be taken that it is not hurt by the dressing,
or rather let it not be dressed at all, but
wrapped up in a loose flannel. If notwith-
standing this precaution, it still continues cry-
ing; instead of feeding it, for it is certainly a
preposterous thing to think of feeding a child
because it is sick, tho' possibly this may stop its
mouth for a little while; let it be applied to
the mother's breast, perhaps it may bring the
milk immediately; which would be the best
medicine for it in such a case; or the nipple
in its mouth may quiet it though it does not
bring it. And it is certainly better it should
be quieted without food than with it, which
must necessarily make it worse. Sometimes
indeed the child may be so very ill, that it
will not even attempt to suck. In such a case,
which I think can happen but rarely. Let the
physic I shall recommend a little further on,
where children are unavoidably to be dry-
nursed, 

(16)
nursed, be given, a little every hour till it
takes effect; still attempting to bring it to
suck the mother's milk, which is the best
physic or food it can take.
WHEN a child sucks its own mother,
which, with a very few exceptions, would
be best for every child, and every mother,
nature has provided it with such wholsome
and suitable nourishment; supposing her a
temperate woman, that makes some use of
her limbs; it can hardly do amiss. The
mother would likewise, in most hysterical,
nervous cases, establish her own health by it,
though she were weak and sickly before, as well
as that of her offspring. For these reasons
I could wish, that every woman that is able,
whose fountains are not greatly disturbed or
tainted, would give suck to her child. I am
very sure, that forcing back the milk, which
most young women must have in great abun-
dance, may be of fatal consequence: some-
times it endangers life, and often lays the
foundation of many incurable diseases. The
reasons that are given for this practice are
very frivolous, and drawn from false pre-
mises; that some women are too weak to
bear such a drain, which would rob them
of their own nourishment. This is a very
mistaken notion; for the first general cause
of most people's diseases is, not want of
nourishment, as is here imagined, but too
great a fulness and redundancy of humours;
good at first, but being more than the body
can employ or consume, the whole mass be-
comes corrupt, and produces many diseases.
This is confirmed by the general practice of
Physicians,

{17)
Physicians, who make holes in the skin, per-
petual blisters, issues, &c. to let out the su-
perfluity. I would therefore leave it to be con-
sidered, whether the throwing back such a load
of humour, as a woman's first milk, be most
likely to mend her constitution, or make her
complaints irremediable. The mother's first
milk is purgative, and cleanses the child of its
long hoarded excrement; no child therefore
can be deprived of it without manifest injury.
By degrees it changes its property, becomes
less purgative, and more nourishing; and is
the best and only food the child likes, or ought
to have for some time. If I could prevail, no
child should ever be cramm'd with any unnatur-
al mixture,'till the provision of nature was rea-
dy for it; nor afterwards fed with any ungenial
alien diet whatever, the first three Months: For
it is not well able to digest and assimilate other
aliments sooner. There is usually milk enough
with the first child; sometimes more than it can
take: It is pour'd forth from an exuberant, over-
flowing urn, by a bountiful hand, that never pro-
vides sparingly. The call of nature should be
waited for to feed it with any thing more substan-
tial, and the appetite ever precede the food; not
only with regard to the daily meals, but those
changes of diet, which opening, increasing life
requires. But this is never done in either case,
which is one of the greatest mistakes of all nurses.
Thus far nature, if she be not interrupted, will
do the whole business perfectly well; and there
seems to be nothing left for a Nurse to do, but
to keep the child clean and sweet, and to tumble
and toss it about a good deal, play with it, and
keep it in good humour.
C BUT 

(18)
BUT now the child (I mean when it is
about three months old) requires more solid
sustenance, we are to enquire what, and how
much, is most proper to give it. We may be
well assured, there is a great mistake either in
the quantity or quality of childrens food, or
both, as it is usually given them; because they
are made sick by it. As to quantity, there is
a most ridiculous error in the common practice;
for it is generally supposed, that whenever a
child cries, it wants victuals; and it is ac-
cordingly fed, ten, twelve, or more times in a
day and night. This is so obvious a misap-
prehension, that I am surprized it should ever
prevail. If a child's wants and motions be
diligently and judiciously attended to, it will
be found that it never cries but from pain:
Now the first sensations of hunger are not at-
tended with pain; accordingly a child (I
mean this of a very young one) that is hun-
gry, will make a hundred other signs of its
want, before it will cry for food. If it be
healthy and quite easy in its dress, it will hard-
ly ever cry at all. Indeed these signs and
motions, I speak of, are but rarely to be ob-
served; because it seldom happens that chil-
dren are ever suffered to be hungry. In a few,
very few, whom I have had the pleasure to see
reasonably nursed, that were not fed above two
or three times in four and twenty hours, and
yet were perfectly healthy, active and happy;
I have seen these signals, which were as intel-
ligible as if they had spoke.
THERE are many faults in the quality of
their food: It is not simple enough. Their
paps, panada's, gruels, &c. are generally en-
riched 

(19)
riched with sugar, spice, and sometimes a drop
of wine; neither of which they ought ever to
taste. Our bodies never want them: they are
what luxury only has introduced, to the de-
struction of the health of mankind. It is not
enough that their food be simple, it should be
also light. Several people, I find, are mista-
ken in their notions of what is light; and
fancy that most kinds of pastry puddings,
custards, &c. are light, that is, light of di-
gestion. But there is nothing heavier in this
sense than unfermented flour and eggs boiled
hard, which are the chief ingredients of those
preparations. What I mean by light, to give
the best idea I can of it, is any substance that is
easily separated, and soluble in warm water.
Good bread is the lighted thing I know; the
power of due fermentation, in which consists
the whole art of making it, breaks and attenu-
ates the tenacious particles of the flour, so as to
give it these qualities I mention, and make it
the fittest food for young children. Cows milk
is also simple and light, and very good for
them; but it is injudiciously prepared: it
should not be boiled, for boiling alters the taste
and property of it, destroys its sweetness, and
makes it thicker, heavier, and less fit to mix
and assimilate with the blood. But the chief
objection is, that their food is wholly vegetable;
the bad consequence of which is, that it will
turn sour in their stomachs. The first and ge-
neral cause of all the diseases of infants, is ma-
nifestly this acescent quality of all their food.
If any of these vegetable preparations I have
named, be kept in a degree of heat equal to
that of a child's stomach, it will become sour as
C2 vinegar 

(20)
vinegar in a few hours time. These things are
therefore very improper to feed a child wholly
with. Some part of its diet should be contrived
to have a contrary tendency; such as we find
only in flesh, which is the direct opposite to
acid, and tends to putrefaction. In a due mix-
ture of these two extremes, correcting each
other, consist that salubrity of aliment our na-
ture seems to require. As we are partly carni-
verous animals, a child ought not to be fed
wholly upon vegetables. The mother's milk,
when it is perfectly good, seems to be this true
mixture of the animal and vegetable properties,
that agrees best with the constitution of a child;
readily passes into good blood, requiring but
a gentle exertion of the powers of circulation to
break and subdue its particles and make them
smooth and round, and easily divisible I would
advise therefore, that one half of infants diet be
thin light broths, with a little bread or rice
boiled in them; which last is not so acescent as
any other kind of meal or flour. These broths
should be made with the flesh of full grown
animals, because their juices are more elabor-
ate; especially if they have never been confin'd
to be fatted. The juices of a young ox, taken
from the plough, make the finest flavoured and
most wholsome soup. I believe it is for the
same reason, the flesh of all wild animals has
a higher taste than that of tame, saginated
ones; and is therefore most agreeable to the
palates of the luxurious; but this is to be un-
derstood of those creatures that feed on corn or
herbage. The other part of childrens diet may
be a little bread and water boiled almost dry,
and then mixed with fresh milk, not boiled.
This, 

(21)
This, without sugar, spice, or any other pre-
tended amendment whatever, would be per-
fectly light and wholsome, of sufficient nourish-
ment, something like milk from the cow, with
the additional strength and spirit of bread in it.
Twice a day, and not oftener, a sucking child
should be fed at first; once with the broth, and
once with the milk thus prepared. As to the
quantity at each time, its appetite must be the
measure of that; its hunger should be satisfied,
but no more; for children will always eat with
some eagerness full as much as they ought:
therefore it must be very wrong to go beyond
that, and stuff them 'till they spue, as the com-
mon method is. They should not be laid on
their backs to be fed, but held in a fitting pos-
ture, that swallowing may be easier to them,
and that they may the more readily discover
when they have had enough. When they
come to be about six Months old, and their ap-
petite and digestion grows strong, they may be
fed three times a day; which I think they
ought never to exceed their whole lives after.
By night I would not have them fed or suckled
at all, that they might at least be hungry in a
morning. It is this night-feeding, that makes
them so over-fat and bloated. If they be not
used to it at first, and perhaps awaked on pur-
pose, they will never seek it; and if they are
not disturbed from the birth, in a week's time
they will get into a habit of sleeping all, or
most part of the night very quietly; awaking
possibly once or twice for a few minutes, when
they are wet, and ought to be changed. If it
be thought necessary to give them any thing
between meals, a little milk and water is best.
Their 

(22)
Their meals, and in my opinion their sucking
too, ought to be at stated times, and the same
every day; that the stomach may have intervals
to digest, and the appetite return. The child
would soon be quite easy and satisfied in the
habit; much more so, than when taught to ex-
pect food at all times, and at every little fit of
crying or uneasiness. Let this method be ob-
served about a Twelvemonth, when, and not
before, they may be weaned; not all at once, 
but by insensible degrees; that they may neither
feel, nor fret at the want of the breast. This
might be very easily managed, if they were suf-
fered to suck only at certain times. Were this
plan of Nursing literally pursued, the children
kept clean and sweet, tumbled and tossed about
a good deal, and carried out every day in all
weathers; I am confident, that in six or eight
months time most children would become heal-
thy and strong, would be able to fit up on the
ground without support, to divert themselves
an hour at a time, to the great relief of their
Nurses, would readily find the use of their legs,
and very soon shift for themselves.
IF it be asked whether I mean this of children
in general, and that weakly ones born of un-
healthy parents should be treated in the same
manner; I answer, that it is not so common for
children to inherit the diseases of their parents,
as is generally imagined; there is much vulgar
error in this opinion; for people that are very
unhealthy seldom have children, especially if
the bad health be of the female side; and it is
generally late in life when chronick diseases
take place in most men, when the business of
love is pretty well over: Certainly children can
have 

(23)
have no title to those infirmities, which their
parents have acquired by indolence and intem-
perance long alter their birth. It is not com-
mon for people to complain of ails they think
hereditary,'till they are grown up; that is,
'till they have contributed to them by their own
irregularities and excesses, and then are glad to
throw their own faults back upon their parents;
and lament a bad constitution, when they have
spoiled a very good one. It is very seldom that
young children are troubled with family distem-
pers: Indeed when we find them affected with
scrophulous, venereal, or high scorbutick com-
plaints, we may reasonably conclude the taint
to have been transmitted to them; but these
cases are very rare, in comparison of the many
others that are falsly, and without the least
foundation, imputed to parents, when the real
cause is either in the complainants themselves,
or bad Nursing, that has fixed them early in
wrong habits. In one sense many diseases may
be said to be hereditary, perhaps all those of
male formation; by which I mean not only de-
formity and distortion, but all those cases where
the fibres and vessels of one part are weaker in
proportion than the rest; so that upon any
strain of the body, whether of debauch or too
violent exercise, the weak part fails first, and
disorders the whole. Thus complaints may be
produced similar to those of the parent, owing
in some measure to the similitude of parts,
which possibly is inherited, like the features of
the face; but yet these diseases might never have
appeared, but for the immediate acting cause,
the violence done to the body. Most distem-
pers have two causes; the one, a particular state
of 

(24) 
of the solids and fluids of the body, which dis-
pose it to receive certain infections and impul-
ses; the other, the infection, or impulse itself.
Now what I contend for it, that that though
this predisponent state or habit of the body be
heritable, yet the diseases incident to these
wretched heirs may be avoided, by preventing
the active cause; which may be done in many
cases by a due attention to the non-naturals, as
they are called; in plainer words, by a regular,
temperate life: in children, by good Nursing.
Therefore I conclude, that instead of indulging
and enfeebling yet more, by the common me-
thods, children so unhappily born; that which
I am recommending, together with the whol-
some milk of a healthy Nurse, is the best, the
only means to remedy the evil, and by which
alone they may by degrees be made healthy and
strong. And thus, in a generation or two of
reasonable, temperate persons, every taint and
infirmity whatever, the King's Evil, and Mad-
ness not excepted, would be totally wore out.
THE plain natural plan I have laid down, is
never followed; because most mothers, of any
condition, either cannot, or will not undertake
the troublesome task of suckling their own chil-
dren; which is troublesome only for want of
proper method; were it rightly managed, there
would be much pleasure in it, to every woman
that can prevail upon herself to give up a little
of the beauty of her breast to feed her offspring;
though this is a mistaken notion, for the breasts
are not spoiled by giving suck but by growing
fat. There would be no fear of offending the
husband's ears with the noise of the squalling
brat. The child, was it nursed in this way,
would 

(25)
would be always quiet, in good humour, ever
playing, laughing, or sleeping. In my opinion,
a man of sense cannot have a prettier rattle (for
rattles he must have of one kind or other) than
such a young child. I am quite at a loss to ac-
count for the general practice of sending infants
out of doors, to be suckled, or dry nursed by
another woman, who has not so much under-
standing, nor can have so much affection for it,
as the parents; and how it comes to pass, that
people of good sense and easy circumstances will
not give themselves the pains to watch over the
health and welfare of their children; but are so
careless as to give them up to the common me-
thods, without considering how near it is to an
equal chance, that they are destroyed by them.
The antient custom of exposing them to wild
beasts, or drowning them, would certainly be
a much quicker and more humane way of dis-
patching them. There are some, however,
who wish to have children, and to preserve
them, but are mistaken in their cares about
them. To such only I would address myself,
and earnestly recommend it to every father to
have his child nursed under his own eye, to
make use of his own reason and sense in super-
intending and directing the management of it;
nor suffer it to be made one of the mysteries of
the Bona Dea, from which the men are to be
excluded. I would advise every mother that
can, for her own sake, as well as her child's, to
suckle it. If she be a healthy woman, it will
confirm her health; if weakly, in most cases it
will restore her. It need be no confinement to her,
or abridgment of her time: Four times in four
and twenty hours will be often enough to give
D it 

(26)
it suck; letting it have as much as it will take,
out of both breasts, at each time. It may be
fed and dressed by some handy, reasonable ser-
vant, that will submit to be directed; whom
likewise it may sleep with. No other woman's
milk can be so good for her child; and dry-
nursing I look upon to be the most unnatural
and dangerous method of all; and, according
to my observation, not one in three survives it.
To breed a child in this artificial manner, re-
quires more knowledge of nature, and the ani-
mal œconomy, than the best Nurse was ever
mistress of, as well as more care and attention
than is generally bestowed on children: the skill
of a good Physician would be necessary to man-
age it rightly. I am very glad this is not the
method of the Hospital: I believe there is not
the least colour of objection to any part of the
management of that most useful and excellent
charity, as far as it depends upon the directors
of it. Sending the children out to Country
Nurses, under the care of Inspectors, is un-
doubtedly the best method they could take;
but how far these Nurses and their Inspectors
(who, I suppose, are to be some good Gentle-
woman in the neighbourhood) may be persuad-
ed out of their old forms, to treat their Nurse-
lings a little more reasonably, is matter of much
doubt. I fear they will be too tenacious of their
prejudices, as well as opinionated of their skill,
to be easily convinced they are in the wrong;
and who shall undertake the task? However,
I despair not of seeing a reformation one day or
other; and to contribute to it as much as lies
in my power, I will give you my opinion as to
the precautions, necessary to be taken, in the
choice 

(27)
choice of these Nurses; and likewise a few rea-
sons why the children, entrusted to their care,
should be treated somewhat differently from
those, who are nursed in a more natural way,
and suck their own mothers. I make no doubt,
but great care is taken, that the Nurses, re-
commended to the Hospital, be clean and heal-
thy women. But this is not enough, the pre-
ference should be given to the middle-aged;
because they will have more milk than the very
young, and more, and better than the old. This
is a material consideration, as I suppose, they
have each her own child to suckle besides.
Those between twenty and thirty are certainly
of the best age. But what I think of the ut-
most consequence is, that great regard should
be had to the time of their lying-in, and those
procured, if possible, who have not been
brought to bed above two or three months.
The reason of this is, that nature intending
a child should suck about a twelvemonth, the
milk seldom continues good much longer.
About that time, women in general, though
they give suck, are apt to breed again; some
indeed, that are very sanguine, will breed soon-
er; these, notwithstanding their milk, are apt
to be troubled with the Catamenia, which dis-
turb it greatly; and therefore are not so proper
to be made Nurses of. But, whether they
breed or not, it is my opinion, that after
a year's time, or thereabouts, however it may
agree with a child that has sucked it from the
first, their milk will become stale and vapid, at
least very unfit for a new-born infant; that if it
be deprived of its own mother's milk, ought
undoubtedly to have what is most like it: the
D2 newer 

(28)
newer it is, the more suitable in all respects to
its tender nature. Yet it is a common thing
for a woman to suckle two or three children suc-
cessively with the same milk.
A NURSE ought to have great regard to her
diet: It is not enough that she be sober and
temperate, her food should consist of a proper
mixture of flesh and vegetables; She should eat
one hearty meal of flesh-meat every day, with
a good deal of garden-stuff, and bread. Thin
broth or milk would be best for her breakfast
and supper. Her drink should be small beer,
or milk and water; but upon no account should
she ever touch a drop of wine or strong drink,
much less any kind of spirituous liquors: Giv-
ing ale or brandy to a Nurse is, in effect, giv-
ing it the child; and it is easy to conclude what
would be the consequence.
THE children likewise, thus sent out, re-
quire a particular treatment. The plan I
would lay down, could I prevail, should be
that of Nature, excluding art and foreign aid
entirely. But when this is broke in upon, a
little adventitious skill becomes indispensibly
necessary; that if we were not perfectly right
in following closely the design of nature, we
may co-operate a little, and not be totally wrong
in counter acting it, as is too often the case.
What I mean is, that every child, not allowed
the mother's first milk, whether it be dry-
nursed, or suckled by another woman, should
be purged in a day or two after the birth; and
this purging continued for some time; not by
regular doses of physick, that may operate all at
once; but some lenient laxative should be con-
trived, and given two or three times a day, so
as 

(29)
as to keep the child's body open for the first
nine days, or fortnight; lessening the quantity
insensibly, 'till it be left off. It should be so
managed, that the operation of the artificial
physick may resemble that of the natural.
This is so material, that for want of it, most
children within the first month break out in
pimples all over; the Nurses call it the red 
gum, and look upon it to be a natural thing,
and that the children will be unhealthy that
have it not. So indeed they will be in all likeli-
hood; and it is better that these foulnesses,
which become acrid and hot by remaining too
long in the body, should be discharged through
the skin, than not at all; or that they should
be lodged in the blood, or fall upon the vitals,
to lay the foundation of numberless future evils:
but it is chiefly owing to the neglect of this me-
thod at first. A child that sucks its own mo-
ther, unless it be greatly over-fed, or kept too
hot, will never be troubled with this humour
at all. If the children that are brought to the
Hospital be not above a month old, and if it be
found, upon enquiry, that they have not suck'd
their own mothers, some thing of this kind pre-
scribed them would not be too late, nor impro-
per. The following form may be used: Take
manna, pulp of cassia; of each half an ounce;
dissolve them in about three ounces of thin
broth. Let the child take two spoon-fuls three
times a day, varying the quantity according to
the effect; which at first ought to be three or
four stools in four and twenty hours.
ORDERS should be given these Nurses to
keep the children awake by day, as long as
they are disposed to be so, and to amuse and
keep 

(30)
keep them in good humour all they can; not
to lull and rock them to sleep, or to continue
their sleep too long; which is only done to save
their own time and trouble, to the great detri-
ment of the childrens health, spirits, and un-
derstanding. With regard to seeding them, as
it is not likely they should have milk enough
to support two, their own, and the Hospital
child; it is best they should begin immediately
according to the method I have recommended,
if they or their Inspectors can be persuaded to
think it right, which, however, I would not
have understood so strictly, but it might some-
times be a little varied, preserving only the in-
tention. I would advise, however, if it be
thought proper, now and then to give them
a little bread and butter; that the butter be
perfectly sweet and fresh, and allowed but in
very small quantity; otherwise it will be apt to
turn bitter and rancid in the stomach, and foul
all the juices of the body. A child may be al-
lowed any kind of mellow fruit, either raw,
stewed, or baked; roots of all sorts, and all the
produce of the kitchen garden. I am sure all
these things are wholsome and good for them,
and every one else, notwithstanding the idle
notion of their being windy, which they are on-
ly to very debauched stomachs; and so is milk;
but no man's blood wants the cleansing, re-
freshing power of milk more than his, whose
stomach, used to inflammatory things of high
relish, will not bear the first chill of it. To
children, all this kind of food, taken in mode-
ration, is perfectly grateful and salutary. Some
may think that they carry into the stomach the
eggs of future worms; but of this I am not
very 

(31)
very apprehensive: for I believe there are few
things we eat or drink, that do not con-
vey them. But then they can never be hatch'd
in a healthy inside, where all the juices are
sweet and good, and every gland performs its
office: the gall in particular would destroy
them. Bullocks gall has been found to be a
good and safe vermifuge. It is my opinion,
we swallow the eggs of many little animals,
that are never brought into life within us,
except where they find a fit nest or lodg-
ment in the acid phlegm, or vitiated humours
of the stomach and bowels. Were these to-
tally discharged every day, and the food of
yesterday employed or thrown off to the last
grain, no worms could ever harbour in our
vitals. As soon as the children have any
teeth, at six or eight months they may by
degrees be used to a little flesh-meat; which
they are always very fond of, much more so
at first, than of any confectionary or pastry
wares, with which they should never debauch
their taste.
BREEDING teeth has been thought to be,
and is, fatal to many children; but I am
confident this is not from nature: for it is no
disease, or we could not be well in health
'till one or two and twenty, or later. Teeth
are breeding the greatest part of that time;
and it is my opinion, the last teeth give more
pain than the first, as the bones and gums,
they are to pierce, are grown more firm and
hard. But whatever fever, fits, or other dan-
gerous symptoms seem to attend this opera-
tion of nature, healthy children have sometimes
bred their teeth without any such bad at-
tendants; 

(32)
tendants; which ought to incline us to suspect
the evil not to be natural, but rather the ef-
fects of too great a fulness, or the corrupt
humours of the body put into agitation by
the stimulating pain the tooth causes in break-
ing its way out. This, I believe, never hap-
pens without some pain, and possibly a little
fever; but if the blood and juices be per-
fectly sweet and good, and there be not too
great a redundancy of them, both will be
but slight, and pass off imperceptibly, without
any bad consequence whatever. The chief
intention of the method I am recommending
is to preserve the humours of the body in
this state; and therefore if it succeeds, chil-
dren so managed will breed their teeth with
less pain and danger than are commonly ob-
served to attend this work of nature.
As I have said that the first and general 
cause of most of the diseases infants are liable
to, is the acid corruption of their food; it
may not be amiss just to mention an easy and
certain remedy, or rather preventive, if gi-
ven timely, at the first appearance of predo-
minating acid; which is very obvious from
the green stools, gripes, and purgings occa-
sioned by it. The common method, when
these symptoms appear, is to give the pearl
julep, crab's eye, and the testacious pow-
ders, which, tho' they do absorb the acidities,
have this inconvenience in their effect, that
they are apt to lodge in the body, and bring
on a costiveness, very detrimental to infants,
and therefore require a little manna, or some
gentle purge to be given frequently to carry
them off. Instead of these, I would recommend
a cer- 

(33)
a certain fine insipid powder, called Magnesia
alba, which at the same time that it corrects
and sweetens all sournesses, rather more effec-
tually than the testaceous powders, is like wise
a lenient purgative, and keeps the body gent-
ly open. This is the only alkaline purge I
know of, and which our dispensatories have
long wanted. I could wish it was more univer-
sally received among us, and think it well de-
serves the rank in our books of pharmacy,
which it already has in some foreign ones. I
have taken it myself, an I given it to others for
the heart-burn, and find it to be the best and
most effectual remedy for that complaint. It
may be given to children from one to two
drams a day, a little at a time, in all their food,
'till the acidities be quite overcome, and the
encomitant symptoms disappear entirely. I
have often given it with good and great ef-
fect, even when the children have been far
gone in diseases first brought on by prevailing
acid.
THERE are some other little niceties, that,
were they observed in the nursing of children,
would be of some use to them; such as put-
ting them soon upon their legs, in order to
forward their walking; accustoming them to
use both hands alike; for employing one more
than the other, will not only make the hand
and arm so used, but also that side of the
body, bigger than the other. This is some-
times the cause of crookedness. It would
likewise not be amiss to forward their speaking
plain, by speaking plain distinct words to
them, instead of the namby pamby stile,
and giving them back their own broken in-
E articular

(34)
articular attempts; by which means, I be-
lieve, some children scarcely speak intelligibly
at seven years of age. I think they cannot
be made reasonable creatures too soon.
THESE few loose thoughts on the subject
of Nursing children, I send you for your
private satisfaction, if they be lucky enough to
give you any. I have neither time nor pati-
ence to think of form and order, or sup-
porting them by affected demonstrations ta-
ken from mechanical principles and powers.
All I have endeavoured is to be intelligible and
useful; and therefore I have avoided, as much
as possible, all terms of art; together with
learned quotations, as often produced out of
vanity, and to shew deep reading, as for the
sake of proof. If you think it may be of any
use to publish this Letter, I am not unwil-
ling it should appear; if not, do with it what
manner you please. I deliver it up as a Foundling
to be disposed of as you think proper. I shall
only add by way of persuasive to those who
may be inclined to make a trial of the method
I recommend, that I am a father, and have
already practiced it with the most desirable
success.
FINIS. 

DR. CADOGAN's true Prepara-
tion of MAGNESIA.
TAKE five pounds of the sal. cathart. amar.
or that salt made from the bittern or mo-
ther of sea salt, which has been falsely called
and sold for Glauber's salt; dissolve this in a suf-
ficient quantity of the softest and purest warm
water, then decant, filter, or strain the lixivi-
um, so as to get it free from all grit and dirt,
then pour into it a pint of ol. tartari per deliq.
it immediately precipitates a white powder,
which subsiding to the bottom, the saline water
is to be decanted off, and the powder washed
repeatedly, three, four, or more times, in
warm soft water, of the same kind with the
first, till there be not a grain of saline acrimony
left in it; then take it out and dry it on a chalk
stone by the fire, or in Boerhaave's stove.
This is the Magnesia I mean.
THE success of the process depends upon the
goodness of the ingredients, particularly of the
oil of tartar, and the softness and purity of the
water: I have, therefore, sometimes recom-
mended distilled water, but rain or River
water; well purified or filtered, will do very
well. I need not add, that it should be made
in clean earthen vessels, well glazed, and that
it is best made in warm, dry weather. The cri-
terions by which it may be known to be good,
are these: It should be of a brilliant whiteness,
very light, impalpable, insipid, and in odorous,
E2 except 

(36)
except that when it is very fine and dry, upon
pouring water on it suddenly, a very delicate
perfumed vapour will rise, scarcely perceptible
but to those who are well acquainted with it.
The common method of adulterating it, is to
use, instead of the oil of tartar, common soper's
lie, or a lixivium of pot-ash, which gives it
a bitter, saltish or urinous taste, disgusting the
palate, and nauseating the stomach. When it
is genuine, it is a good medicine in most acid
indigestions of young or old, and the best pre-
ventative of the gout and rheumatism of any
thing I know; but it is not to be taken in all
cases, nor unadvisedly in any.