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 (_PABTURITION 
 
 WITHOUT PAiN r -- 7 
 
 CODE OF DIRECTIONS 
 
 FOE ESCAPING FROM THE PRIMAL CURSE. 
 
 i / EDITED BT 
 
 Editor of the " Herald of Health." 
 
 M?" L. HOLBROOK:, M.D., 
 
 'Neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are 
 passed away." Rev. xxi, 4. 
 
 FIFTEENTH THOUSAND. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 M. L. HOLBROOK, PUBLISHER, 
 1896.
 
 according to Act of Concnuui. In tlM je* ItH, fe9 
 
 M. L. HOLBROOK. M D., 
 
 IB tfe Office of UM Librarian of CoogreM, at
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 ORIGINALITY has not been soughl m this little 
 irork. All that has been attempted is, to set forth 
 briefly and clearly the nature and importance of 
 childbearing, the slightness of its real dangers, and 
 the best methods of alleviating its discomforts and 
 sufferings. 
 
 The subject is itself extensive, and an immense 
 range of related topics have a direct and important 
 bearing on it. The difficulty has accordingly been 
 not to find what to say, but to decide what to 
 omit. 
 
 It is believed that a healthful regimen has been 
 described; a constructive, preparatory, and pre- 
 ventive training, rather than a course of remedies, 
 medications, and drugs. The cooling, soothing, 
 and nutritious Fruit Diet system is the central 
 -dea of the book, and it is believed that every
 
 4 PREFACE. 
 
 recommendation in it is in haimony with that 
 system. 
 
 Among the authorities who have been cor suited 
 and quoted or used, are the following: Bull, 
 Dewees, Duncan, Gleason, Lozier, Montgomery, 
 Napheya, Pendieton, Shew, Siorer, Tilt, and 
 Verdi.
 
 OO:N TEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PA 
 
 HEALTHFULNESS OP CHILDBEARING 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DANGER OF PREVENTIONS. CELIBACY BY THE DIS- 
 EASED 14 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 OPINIONS ON PAINLESS PARTURITION. CASES 21 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 PREPARATIONS FOR MOTHERHOOD 27 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 EXERCISE AND OCCUPATION DURING GESTATION..... 37 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 FHE BATH; ESPECIALLY THE SITZ-BATH. . . < 44 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 PAINLESS PARTURITION FROM FRUIT DIET. FOOD 
 
 GENERALLY.., . 49
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 THK MIND DURING PREGNANCY. " LON< JNGS." 
 
 " MOTHER'S MARKS" 66 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE AILMENTS OF PREGNANCY AND THEIR TREAT- 
 MENT 79 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 ANAESTHETICS DURING LABOR. FEMALE PHYSICIANS. 91 
 
 SUMMARY 98 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE HUSBAND'S DUTY BEST AGE FOR PROCREA- 
 TION SHALL SICKLY PEOPLE RAISE CHILDREN ? 
 SMALL FAMILIES IMPORTANCE OF PHYSIO- 
 LOGICAL ADAPTATION CELIBACY TOBACCO 
 AND ALCOHOL DETERMINING THE SEX OF 
 CHILDREN FATHER'S vs. MOTHER'S INFLUENCE 
 SHALL PREGNANT WOMEN WORK? INTEL- 
 LECTUAL ACTIVITY AND PARENTAGE MBS. 
 STANTON'S TESTIMONY 99 118
 
 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HEALTHFULNESS OF CHILD-BEARING. 
 
 CHILDREN are a good and not an evil. A human 
 being who is not to some extent fond of children, 
 who does not to some extent desire to have chil- 
 dren, is defective maimed; just as a person is 
 who is unable to take pleasure in music, or who is 
 incapable of distinguishing between right and 
 wrong, or who cannot feel sympathy with the 
 pleasure or pain of other people. 
 
 Accordingly, the cases of men, and still more of 
 women, who do not desire children, are compara- 
 tively few, and are exceptions. They have always 
 been, and still are, recognized as unfortunate in- 
 stances of sickly or deformed natural constitution, 
 or of the harmful influence of unhealthy social 
 conditions. 
 
 The whole range of history, the whole range of 
 to-day^ unperverted human nature, show a pro
 
 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 found love for offspring in the human race. A 
 long series of cases might be cited, it is true, where 
 infanticide has been practised. Yet the number, 
 though great in itself, shrinks out of sight in com- 
 parison with the number of cases where it has not 
 been practised. And, furthermore, it would be 
 easy to show that this seeming ferocity is very 
 often the perverted or rather inverted manifesta- 
 tion of the natural affection itself. That is, for 
 ^nstance, vast numbers of the infanticides prac- 
 tised by heathens upon their female children are 
 perpetrated on the theory either conscious or im 
 plied that it is a kindness to put the little 
 unfortunate things quickly out of a world where 
 they have only unhappiness and servitude to ex- 
 pect. 
 
 Except such violations of natural law as this, it 
 will be found that no more powerful motives, un- 
 less it be the instinct of preserving one's own life, 
 shape the lives and govern the conduct of human 
 beings than those which impel us to have children. 
 Dr. S. O. Howe, the eminent nhysician and philan- 
 thropist, places but one motive above that of de- 
 sire for reproducing our species in point of powei 
 over human beings He says, in a discussion upon 
 the treatment of feminine wrong-doers : " As with 
 the FIRST great instinct of nature to support and 
 prolong our individual life at whatever cost to oth- 
 ers, even so with the SECOND, which leads us to
 
 HEA.LTHFULNESS OF OHILTV-iiEAIUNG. S 
 
 renew and extend our existence by transmittihg it 
 to others." 
 
 The Bible, unerringly true in its psychology, is 
 full of this motive. It may even be said that the 
 powerful protection of this profound instinct was 
 used by the Almighty as the impregnable hiding- 
 place in which the plan of human redemption waa 
 slowly evolved and human thought habituated to 
 it. Every thoughtful student of Bible psychology 
 will perceive that the two inseparable motives 
 love of offspring, and hope of motherhood of the 
 Messiah lay in the very heart of hearts of the 
 Jewish national life. 
 
 But the point needs no argument. Few indeed 
 are those who will seriously deny that children are 
 a source of happiness. Helpless as an infant is, 
 troublesome as are the fantastic tricks and naugh- 
 tinesses of childhood, painful as are parental anxi- 
 eties over the critical eras of youth, in spite of 
 all, a home without children is inexpressibly 
 dreary; a heart without children is sad and lone- 
 some beyond expression ; a life without children ia 
 felt by one of the deepest of instincts to be an imper- 
 fect life, shorn of one of the broadest and most 
 \ital and vivid portions of emotion and enjoyment. 
 
 The money value of a child has been calculated 
 b v one philosophical observer. He conclude.?, in a 
 manner that reminds one somewhat of a slave- 
 trader's computations, that on an average, a healthy
 
 10 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAI2T 
 
 boy, fifteen years old, is equivalent to fifteen him 
 dred dollars cash. This is no doubt a sum not to 
 be despised. But it becomes invisible when we 
 compare it with an estimate of the affectional, so- 
 cial, and ethical value of children. The exercise 
 of so much patience, forbearance, kindness, and 
 love, as their training requires, reacts with infinite 
 power upon the heart of the parent. Constant 
 thoughtfulness, prudence, foresight, and contri- 
 vance are indispensable in managing them; and 
 this discipline in like manner reacts upon the char- 
 acter of the manager. The future of children is 
 one of the most powerful considerations in restrain- 
 ing parents from carelessness or indiscretion in 
 economical matters, in their ordinary walk and 
 conversation, in the whole conduct of life. Many 
 a man or woman has been held back from folly or 
 from shame by the recollection of what the chil- 
 dren would know of it, or would hear of it. 
 
 In truth, the whole fabric of society is keyed 
 upon these feeblest and most imperfect of its mem- 
 bers. Remove their influences, and the chief bond 
 of matrimony disappears ; and with it disappear 
 the home, the family, and a whole vast circle of 
 forces indispensable to individual self-control, to 
 general morality, to the very existence of society 
 and of nations. The indi ridual, thus loosed, stands 
 without ties to any of his kind, without recollec- 
 tions of ancestors, responsibilities to his fellows, or
 
 IIEALTHFULNESS OF CHILD-BEAKiA'G. 11 
 
 expectations toward a future generation. Our civil- 
 ized and organized frame of society, a body in- 
 stinct with healthy life, would drop at once into a 
 mere collection of ultimate atoms, by putrid de- 
 composition. 
 
 Truths inosculate. It is in accordance with 
 what has been said of the inestimable importance 
 of children in society and as instruments for the 
 development of character, that the office of bear- 
 ing children should be not merely a natural but a 
 positively healthful office. 
 
 As in all other respects whatever, a compliance 
 with the natural laws of human existence in this 
 particular, promotes the total significance i. e., 
 the extent, the efficiency, the enjoyableness of 
 that existence. To suppose the case otherwise is 
 to suppose the Creator other than wise. But it is 
 an old paradox, that it is an absurdity which ia 
 the " thing impossible to God." 
 
 No doubt there are exceptions to the rale. But 
 unless there are special reasons to the contrary, 
 married persons live longer than unmarried ; and 
 as a general rule it is absolutely true that long life 
 is happy life. This is the case with both men and 
 women ; and writers on longevity accordingly ha- 
 bitually prescribe matrimony as one important 
 means. But the mother's office in the production 
 of offspring is beyond all comparison a greater ele- 
 nent in her life it occupies sin infinitely greatei
 
 12 PARTURITION WITHOUT 1 A.IN. 
 
 proportion of her time, her head, her hoarfc, aei 
 physical strength and vitality, than in the case of 
 the father. And as might be supposed, the influ 
 ence of marriage and child-bearing upon the dura- 
 tion of women's lives is decidedly more distinct and 
 easy to determine than the influence of marriage 
 and paternity upon men. 
 
 Among the numerous elaborate statistical tables 
 which have been prepared during the last half cen- 
 tury, are many which show that of the women who 
 die between the ages of twenty and forty-five, more 
 are single than married. History affords no in- 
 stance of a single woman who has lived to a 
 remarkably great age. Of women who commit 
 suicide, from two-thirds to three-fourths are single. 
 Of women confined in lunatic asylums, from three- 
 fourths to four-fifths are single. There is a start- 
 ling list of diseases which either actually originate 
 from celibacy strictly observed by persons possess- 
 ing the average qualities of humanity, or which are 
 very greatly developed and intensified by it. The 
 proverbial eccentricities of "old maids" are no 
 mere imaginations. They are neither more nor 
 less than the unavoidable consequences of an un- 
 natural way of living. So immediate and impor- 
 tant is the influence of celibacy or marriage on 
 health, that we find medical authorities of the high- 
 est rank treating it as a matter of hygienic impor- 
 tance as obvious and as weighty as food or exercise
 
 HEALTHFULNESS OF CHILD-BEAKING. 13 
 
 or climate. Thus the great French physician 
 Pinel says that medicine is helpless in cases where 
 " the immutable necessities of fecundity and repro- 
 d notion are perverted. When therefore a young 
 marriageable maiden exhibits symptoms of the 
 approach of any disease, she should if possible be 
 united to the object of her affections." And the 
 physician who quotes this language adds, "this 
 treatment has often proved very successful in avert- 
 ing diseases that would have rendered her life one 
 of misery." 
 
 Thus it appears that the process of child-bearing 
 is essentially necessary to the physical health and 
 long life, the mental happiness, the development 
 of the affections and whole character of women 
 individually (of men also), and to the very exist- 
 ence, not only of the human race, but of civilized 
 society. 
 
 9
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DANGER OF PREVENTIONS. 
 
 IN like manner as it was shown that thi health- 
 fulness of child-bearing accords with natuial indi- 
 cations, so does the doctrine that frustrations of 
 child-bearing are unhealthful, accord with the same 
 indications. The invasion and devastation of a 
 great province of life cannot but weaken the whole. 
 The function of child-bearing diverts to its pur- 
 poses and absorbs in its offices such a vast share of 
 the physical frame, of the blood, of the nervous 
 system, of the whole vitality of the mother, that 
 to meddle with it meddles with her very existence. 
 
 The vast importance of the maternal office is 
 strikingly shown in estimates of the influence of 
 the female reproductive system upon the whole life 
 which have been made by distinguisned medical 
 writers. " P 'ropier uterum est mil Her," asserts one 
 of them "Woman exists for the sake of the 
 womb." And Professor Hubbard, of New Haven, 
 in an annual discourse before a medical society 
 during 1870, spoke as follows: "The sympathies 
 of the uterus with every other part of the female
 
 DANGER OF PREVENTIONS. 15 
 
 organism are so evident, and the sympathetic rela- 
 tions of all the organs of woman with the uterus 
 are so numerous and complicated, so intimate and 
 often so distant, yet pervading her entire being, 
 that it would almost seem, to use the expression of 
 another, ' as if the Almighty, in creating the female 
 sex, had taken the uterus and built up a woman 
 around it.' " And again, he calls this organ " the 
 great central pivotal organ of her existence." 
 
 Even when brought on without special violence 
 even when merely resulting from general or local 
 imperfections previously existing, miscarriages are 
 recognized as perilous to an exceptional and even 
 mysterious degree. All the standard writers on 
 the subject are as strenuous as language will per- 
 mit, in their warnings against causing miscar- 
 riages, in requiring the extremest delicacy of pre- 
 caution for avoiding them, and in depicting not 
 only their temporary and immediate consequences, 
 but the terrible danger that they will cause 
 the utter ruin of all health and happiness during 
 whatever is left of life. Thus, Dr. Thomas Bull 
 observes: "There is no accident befalling female 
 iiealth which forms a greater source of dread, anx- 
 iety, and subsequent regret to a married woman 
 than miscarriage. When this occurrence becomes 
 habitual, there is no circumstance the consequences 
 of which are productive of more serious injury to 
 the constitution, blasting the fairest promises of
 
 (6 PARTUKITION WITHOUT. PAIN. 
 
 aealth, and ofttimes laying the first seeds of fatal 
 disease." 
 
 This intrinsic danger is frightfully increased 
 when drugs or violence are used in order to break 
 up the natural course of gestation by the destruc- 
 tion of the unborn child. Much attention has, 
 especially of late years, been called to the wide 
 prevalence of such practices, and the assertion has 
 been extensively and often made that American 
 women are peculiarly addicted to it, and those of 
 New England more than any other. Whatever may 
 be the exact statistics of the subject, and while the 
 practice itself is as bad as it can be called, yet it is 
 extremely probable that in this case, as in many 
 others, publicity and prevalence are confounded. 
 No evil can be exposed by thorough local investi- 
 gation without apparent proof that the locality best 
 investigated was worst conditioned which is a 
 fallacious mode of reasoning. 
 
 However, the practice of deliberately procuring 
 abortions is no doubt quite frequent, awfully dan- 
 gerous, and awfully wicked. Recent publications 
 on the subject, by Dr. Storer, Dr. Todd, Bishop 
 Coxe, and others, have so powerfully attacked thia 
 wicked practice, from physiological, mortl, and 
 religious considerations, that no extended discussion 
 of it is necessary here, even did space permit it. 
 A summary of considerations mast suffice. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that
 
 DANGER Of PREVENTIONS. 17 
 
 the commor. sense of mankind has been expressed 
 in numerous laws inflicting fine, imprisonment, or 
 death, upon the principals and accessories in pro 
 curing an abortion, as upon those guilty of a 
 felony. In like manner, a stigma of horror and 
 contempt is always set upon a known abortionist 
 like that \vhich used to brand the slave-trader. If 
 he be a physician, his brethren reject him; if a 
 quack, all society rejects him. Neither hundreds 
 of thousands of dollars, limitless magnificence, a 
 tine house on Fifth Avenue, the possession of the 
 most dangerous secrets, eager ambition, nor unfail- 
 ing energy, has been able to secure a respectable 
 social position to the best known female abortionist 
 in New York. 
 
 For this shame and horror there is overwhelm- 
 ing cause. The procuring of an abortion is putting 
 to death a human being that is, it is murder, 
 unless there exist reasons as weighty and as urget t 
 as those which prevent the taking of adult lift 
 from being murder. 
 
 It is, moreover, self-murder also in many cases, 
 for the number of deaths resulting directly and 
 quickly from it is very great, and still greater is the 
 destruction of life by shortening and sickening the 
 subsequent existence of the mother. " Miscarriages," 
 says Dr. Storer, " are often a thousand-fold more 
 dangerous in their immediate consequences than 
 the average of natural labors. . . . They arc no*
 
 IS PAKTUK1T1ON WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 only frequently much more hazardous to life at 
 the time, but to subsequent health ; theiz results in 
 some instances remaining latent for many years, at 
 times not shoeing themselves until the so-called 
 turn of life, and then giving rise to uncontiollable 
 and fatal hemorihuge, or to the development of 
 cancer or other incurable disease." 
 
 Among the results to the mother other than 
 death, from what may be called natural, still more 
 from artificial miscarriage, are all the numer- 
 ous and varied miseries of displacement aud fall- 
 ing of the womb ; leucorrhoea ; ovarian disorders, 
 liable to end in tumor or dropsy; dangerous in- 
 flammations of the reproductive organs and of 
 others trom sympathy with them ; fistulas, perhaps 
 the most horrible of surgical diseases; adhesions, 
 degenerations, and numerous other permanently 
 distressing results of these inflammations ; subse- 
 quent inability to produce any but sickly or de- 
 formed children; total barrenness; and last, List 
 not least, insanity. 
 
 Belies that it is murder to the child-victim, 
 frequently suicide, murder, or physiological ruin 
 to the mother, and a felony in all engaged in perpe- 
 trating it, the habitual practice of procuring abor- 
 tions, like the habitual practice of any crime, saps 
 the life and strength of the community, as \vell as 
 of the individuals who compose it; and Storer 
 aptly quotes from Granville on Sadden Death, the
 
 DANGER OF PREVENTIONS. 1& 
 
 impressh P warning : " Let the legislal or ai.d mor- 
 alist look to it; for as sure as there is in any nation 
 a hidden tampering with infant life, whether fre- 
 quent 01 occasional, systematic or accidental, so 
 surely will the chastisement of the Almighty fall 
 upon such a nation 
 
 Both celibacy anu frustrated fruitfulness are 
 unnatural and perilous. There are, however, 
 as has been observed, exceptional cases when the 
 enforcement of both one and the other may be 
 justified. There may be cases where a miscarri- 
 age ought to be produced, just as there are cases 
 where a living child must be put to death in the 
 very act of delivering the mother. It is, however, 
 the physician's duty to pass and execute such judg- 
 ments ; and he is bound, in doing so, to act from 
 the motives of his profession, and not to consult 
 the patient's fear of shame, nor her desire to avoid 
 the care of maternity. There are cases where pecu- 
 liarities of organization or disposition indispose or 
 unfit individuals for matrimony; and such per- 
 sons do rightly to live single. But such cases do 
 not at all interfere with the principles above set 
 forth as generally true. 
 
 A more difficult question is that sometimes 
 raised, whether inheritable disease should prevent 
 Uie person infected with it from marriage ? On 
 this point, it is believed that most opinions .iaii be 
 ranked in two groups: one starting from the belief
 
 20 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 that the requisite self-denial for such avoidance of 
 marriage is practicable ; and the other that it ia 
 not. The truth is, that in the present state of our 
 knowledge about the real nature of diseases, and 
 of transmissibility of qualities from parent to 
 offspring, the materials for an authoritative deci- 
 sion of this question do not exist; and no such, 
 applicable to all cases, can be given. At the same 
 time it is clear that to a high-minded person the 
 fact of being tainted with a disorder likely to ruin 
 the health and happiness of offspring would be a 
 very powerful motive for refraining from marriage. 
 And yet, on the other hand, the recuperative 
 energies of the human organism, both individually 
 and as a succession of generations, are so indefi- 
 nite and so wonderful, that great excuse could be 
 found for almost any one who should marry and 
 have children, notwithstanding such an objection. 
 It is an obvious suggestion, that when persona 
 having inheritable disease become parents, mere 
 justice, as well as natural affection, require that 
 they should bestow special and untiring pains and 
 care to counteract the evil tendency in the chil- 
 dren by the healthiest possible training, in order 
 that the natural forces may be helped as far aa 
 may be to ej^ct 01 overcome the malignant influ- 
 ences.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OPINIONS ON PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 
 
 THE accounts given by travellers of the marvel- 
 lous ease, quickness, painlessness, and freedom 
 from disablement, with which many savage women 
 bring forth children, are well known. There is great 
 reason for believing that among some savage races 
 neither pregnancy nor labor interrupts the usual 
 avocations and movements of the mother, except, 
 perhaps, for an hour or two at the birth itself. Lt 
 is not, however, so generally known that the re- 
 cords of medical observations contain accounts of 
 a number of cases of almost equally complete 
 contradictions of what is commonly considered a 
 primal and universal curse upon humanity. 
 
 Dr. Tuke, a high authority, says: " Parturition 
 itself, according to the general testimony of travel- 
 lers, interferes much less, and for a shorter period, 
 with the healthy action of the body and mind 
 among savage nations than among the luxurious 
 daughters of artificial life." 
 
 Dr. Dewees, one of the best authorities in obstet- 
 rics, has argued in one of his publications, that 
 " pain in childbirth is a morbid symptom ; that it
 
 22 PA.RTUBITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 is a perversion of nature caused by modes of living 
 not consistent with the most healthy condition of 
 the system; and that such a regimen as should 
 insure such a completely healthy condition might 
 l>e counted on with certainty to do away with such 
 pain." The account of the Fruit Diet system, given 
 in our subsequent Chapter VII., demonstrates, it ia 
 believed, an entire fulfillment of this prediction of 
 the eminent Philadelphia physician. 
 
 In like manner we find the great English scien- 
 tist, Professor Huxley, saying, in his paper on 
 " Emancipation, Black and White," "We are, in- 
 deed, fully prepared to believe that the bearing of 
 children may, and ought to become, as free from 
 danger and long disability to the civilized women 
 as it is to the savage." 
 
 The following paragraphs, from one of the essays 
 in Dr. Montgomery's classical work on Pregnancy, 
 are interesting as giving circumstantial details of 
 cases in illustration of the belief in the practica- 
 bility of painless parturition : 
 
 "In a letter to me, dated 5th November, 1832, 
 Dr. Douglas states that he was called about six 
 o'clock A.M., on the 26th of September, 1828, to 
 
 attend Mrs. D., of the county of W , but them 
 
 residing in Eccles Street. On his arrival he found 
 the house in the utmost confusion, and was told 
 that the child had been born before the messt-Tigei 
 was dispatched for the doctor; and from the lad 5
 
 OPINIONS ON PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH. 23 
 
 t .rself he learned that, about half an horn previ- 
 ously, she had been awakened from a natural sleep 
 by the alarm of a daughter about five years old. 
 who had slept with her for some nights before, and 
 this alarm i ad been occasioned by the little girl 
 feeling the movements and hearing the crying of an 
 infant in the bed. To the mother's great surprises 
 she found that she had brought forth her child 
 
 without any consciousness of the fact In 
 
 the London Practice of Midwifery, a work gener- 
 ally ascribed to a late very distinguished practi- 
 tioner, we find the following account : 
 
 "'A lady in great respectability, the wife of a 
 peer of the realm, was actually delivered once in 
 her sleep: she immediately awaked her husband, 
 being a little alarmed at finding one more in bed 
 than was before.' .... 
 
 " I have elsewhere mentioned the case of a patient 
 of mine who bore eight children without ever hav- 
 ing labor pain ; and her deliveries were so sudden 
 and void of sensible effort, that in more than one 
 instance they took place under most awkward cir- 
 cumstances, but without any suffering Dr. 
 
 Wharrie relates the case of a primipara (i. e., a 
 woman bearing children for the first time), aged 
 twenty-one, who had been in labor about six hours ; 
 ghe complained of no pain, and the child was bore 
 without effort or consciousness." 
 
 A case is known of a lady in New England wh<i
 
 24 PAKTITUITIOM WITHOUT. PAIN. 
 
 hal five children, arid w ho, unless at her first de 
 livery, experienced n( pain ; and another case is 
 known of a lady whose reputation is high as a 
 writer and speaker, who asserted that it was her 
 own experience that the so-called pains of child- 
 birth were no more entitled to the name than the 
 sensations attendant upon other natural processes 
 which are ordinarily entirely painless. 
 
 All these cases, it should be noted, were of women 
 in good health; and the two latter, at any rate, 
 were persons of exceptionally fine and strong con- 
 stitutions. In like manner, those women of savage 
 nations who bear children without pain, live much 
 in the open air, take much exercise, and are phys- 
 ically active and healthy to a degree greatly beyond 
 their more civilized sisters. 
 
 These instances tend directly to prove that par- 
 turition is likely to be painless in proportion as the 
 mother is physically perfect and in a perfect con- 
 dition of be<uih. They certainly tend even more 
 strongly to prove that pain is not an absolutely 
 necessary attendant of parturition. 
 
 As for the announcement of Genesis iii. 16, "In 
 Borrow thou shalt bring forth children," it may 
 judiciously be compared with the accompanying 
 announcement to the maiL that he should earn his 
 bread by the sweat of his brow. This latter does 
 not prohibit the ameliorations of associated effort, 
 Dr of labor-saving machinery ; not even if at some
 
 OPINIONS ON PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH 25 
 
 future time these should, as seems not improbable, 
 elevate mankind above the necessity of yielding the 
 greater part of life to mere drudgery. Nor does 
 the former prediction prohibit the use of means to 
 diminish the suffering which it foretells. It would 
 be a wicked misrepresentation of the Almighty, 
 indeed, to assert that in prophesying evil, he had 
 meant to refuse escape from it. God is good, and 
 does not do so. If he prophesies evil, it is not in 
 order to perpetuate it, but if possible to prevent or 
 cure it. Indeed, the language may properly be 
 considered as a prediction merely. As such it has 
 already been abundantly fulfilled. There has been 
 suffering enough in childbirth to satisfy, not 
 merely a God, but a devil. There is enough within 
 every day that passes over our heads. For tht 
 great majority of women in civilized nations, par- 
 turition is a period of intense pain. Doubtless 
 the total of its sufferings are the greatest single 
 item of every-day human misery. Dr. Storer says : 
 "There is probably no suffering ever experienced 
 which will compare, in proportion to its extent 
 in time, with the throes of parturition." And 
 he quotes from Dr. Meigs, who says: "Men can- 
 not suffer the same pain as women. What do you 
 call the pains of parturition? There is no name 
 for them but Agony." 
 
 The course of modern scientific investigation, 
 However, has gone far to justify a belief that this 
 3
 
 2t> PARTUUITION WITHOUT PAIN 
 
 terrific burdm upon humanity can be ul most en 
 tirely removed; that the pain of parturition can 
 be as completely done away with as the danger and 
 disfigurement of small-pox, for instance. It is the 
 object of the following chapters to set forth briefly 
 the substance of the best principles and rules that 
 have been arrived at for this purpose, up to the 
 present time. 
 
 At the same time, this immeasurable benefit to 
 humanity cannot be obtained without the proper 
 use of means, and the continuance of such use for 
 a considerable period. The doctrines of the ablest 
 thinkers on the subject, will be found to agree in 
 this; that it is the previous life of the mother 
 the whole of it, from her own birth to the birth of 
 ner child which almost entirely determines what 
 her danger, her difficulty, and her pain during 
 childbirth shall be. Her easy or difficult labor, 
 in fact, is almost entirely her own work. Her con- 
 duct during gestation, it is true, is more imme- 
 diately influential in the decision than that of 
 remoter periods, and is or may be greatly more 
 influential upon the future life of her offspring 
 than even upon herself. But the suggestions to be 
 given in these pages about the whole previous life 
 of the mother, although at first they may seem too 
 indirectly concerned with the subject, are not so 
 by any means.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PBEPARATION FOE MATERXITT. 
 
 Ii Is not too much to say that the life of women 
 before marriage ought to be adjusted with more 
 reference to their duties as mothers than to any 
 other one earthly object. It is the continuance of 
 the race which is the chief purpose of marriage. 
 Tht passion of amativeness is probably, on the 
 whole, the most powerful of all human impulses, 
 its purpose, however, is rather to subserve the ob- 
 ject of continuing the species, than merely its own 
 gratification. 
 
 AM, however, this little treatise does not discuss 
 either physiology, hygiene, education, or social 
 ethics, what is to be said on the general subject of 
 this chapter is only a series of reminders or hints, 
 each of them meant to be reinforced by a special 
 reference to their importance in the preparation for 
 maternity. 
 
 The mother n r eds to be strong, healthy, sensible, 
 well-informed, well-mannered, refined, accom- 
 plished, kind, pure, and good. The girl, accord- 
 ingly, needs to be brought up to be such. 
 
 Girls should be brought up to live much in thi
 
 28 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 open air, always with autindant clothing against 
 wot and cold. They should be encouraged to tr.ke 
 much active exercise ; as much, if they want to, aa 
 boys. It is as good for little girls to run and jump, 
 to ramble in the woods, to go boating, to ride and 
 drive, to play and "have fun" generally, as for 
 little boys. 
 
 All their physiological and hygienic habits should 
 be watched and formed as early in life as possible. 
 It is next to impossible to change after adult years 
 are reached ; it only requires steady care to form 
 the habits of a child so that they shall need no 
 change. 
 
 Sleep should be regular and plentiful ; in airy 
 rooms ; at early hours ; each child in a separate 
 bed. After-life will afford all that is necessary in 
 the way of late hours, bad air, and broken rest. 
 As for habitually sleeping two in a bed, while no 
 absolute rule can be laid down on the subject, it is 
 coming to be believed by many sersible thinkers, 
 that even among married people it ts by no means 
 always the most healthful practice 
 
 Children should be carefully prevented from 
 using their eyes to read or write, or in any equiva- 
 lent exertion, either before breakfast, by lim day- 
 light, or by artificial light. Even school studies 
 should usually be such that they can be dealt with 
 by daylight Lessons that cannot be learned with- 
 ou, lamp-light study are a 1 most certainly excessive
 
 FKEPA EATION FOR MATERNITY. 29 
 
 This precaution should ordinarily be maintained 
 ontil the age of puberty is reached. When the 
 girl 'xjgins to study with the sense* of a self-ccn- 
 du '.oing intellect, she has reached an age when her 
 physical as well as mental training should by righ 
 be intrusted as far as possible to her own guidanc. , , 
 and she must, in a great measure, take charge of 
 her own eyes as well as her own thoughts and con 
 duct. 
 
 The food should be healthful, plain, cooked with 
 as much care as if the process were chemical, and 
 almost always nutritious merely, and cooling, 
 rather than stimulant, in quality. Coffee and tea, 
 alcoholic fluids and spices, rich cake and pastry, 
 had better be put off until adult age. If they are 
 used then, it is on the recipient's own responsibility. 
 Abundance of luxuries for the palate may be al- 
 lowed not only without harm but with advantage, 
 by selecting among good fresh and preserved fruits 
 and nuts ; by choosing confectionery made only of 
 clean good sugar and clean good flavors, and by 
 giving it exclusively as adessert,i\\ moderate quanti- 
 ties. Thus associated with other food, it will be 
 found as harmless as the brown sugar or molasses 
 eaten with buckwheat cakes. 
 
 Bathing should be enforced according to con- 
 stitutions, not by an invariable rule, except tht 
 invariable rule of keeping clean. Not necessarily 
 every day, nor necessarily in cold water though
 
 W PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 those conditions are doubtless often right in 
 of abundant physical health and strength. 
 
 The teeth should be closely watched, and tho 
 irksome task of brushing them should be person- 
 ally supervised by the parent eveiy day. It will 
 often be the case that no less watchfulness than 
 this will assure the performance of the duty up 
 to the time when the girl begins to care for hei 
 own personal attractions. 
 
 The habit of daily natural evacuations should 
 be solicitously formed and maintained. Words or 
 figures could never express the discomforts and 
 wretchedness which wrong habits in this particu- 
 lar have locked down upon innumerable women 
 for years and even for life. 
 
 Attitude should be regarded, so far as not merely 
 to cultivate habitually decorous manners in sit- 
 ting and moving, but as to firmly establish habit- 
 aally healthy postures of body. It is seldom neces- 
 sary to use such deformity-cures as back-boards, 
 braces, etc. They usually follow upon previous 
 neglect. Few, indeed, are the girls who, if brought 
 up with sufficient open-air exercise, good food, 
 proper sleep, healthful costume, and correct hy- 
 gienic habits, will poke out their chins, round their 
 shoulders, or develop a curvature of the spine. 
 As in mind, so in body human beings are a pretty 
 fair average, after all, if we let nature ha\e a fail
 
 FKEI'ARA ION FOR MATERNITY 31 
 
 Dress should be warm, loose, comely, ai d modest 
 ruther than showy ; but it should be good enough 
 to satisfy a child's desires after a good appearance, 
 if they are reasonable. Children, indeed, should 
 have all their reasonable desires granted as far as 
 possible ; for nothing makes them reasonable s 
 rapidly and so surely as to treat them reasonably. 
 
 The requisites just named for children's dress 
 are quite as important during youth and married 
 life. Dr. Verdi, in his work on Maternity, traces 
 in a very striking way the influence of dress upon 
 the children of the next generation. What he says 
 exhibits the following chain of causes and effects, 
 and is worthy to be set forth in whole discourses 
 and volumf e by itself, though it must here be com- 
 pressed like a misdressed young lady perhaps 
 too much for the greatest utility. It is thus : 
 
 Children and young persons should be dressed 
 with equal warmth throughout, so that shoulders, 
 arms, lower body, legs, and feet shall be as well 
 defended against cold md wet as the body from 
 waist to shoulders. T.iat exposure of legs and 
 lower body, which is so extremely common for chil- 
 dren, chills the skin. This clogs and impedes the 
 circulation, and especially drives away the blood 
 from the abdomen. This obstructs digestion, even 
 causes the bowels to almost cease their functions, 
 and causes a habitually constipated condition. 
 Tins condition is one of the most usual curses o<
 
 32 PARTURITION V\ IT II OUT PAIN. 
 
 gnbsequent displacements of the womb, leucc rr 
 ulceration, and other local disorders extremely 
 painful and wearing. These, lastly, are well-nigh 
 fatal to the prospect of healthy children, and in 
 many cases leave the mother who has grown up 
 thus disordered actually incapable of carrying a 
 child to full term, and condemned to miscarriages 
 at the sixth or eighth week, with all their miser- 
 able concomitants. 
 
 At school, girls should not be forced to excess- 
 ive study. Great harm is every year done in such 
 forcing-houses as Miss Mary Lyon's famous school, 
 and even in such comparatively low-pressure ma- 
 chines as Vassar College, by over-stimulation of 
 girls' minds and deficient hygienic physical train 
 ing, exactly at he delicate, critical period when 
 they are changing from girls to women. The pro- 
 portion between book-work and mental labor oil 
 one hand, and physical training on the other, 
 should be so adjusted, that if either mental or 
 physical progress must be temporarily neglected, 
 it shall not be the latter ; for at the school-girl age, 
 a few months of ill-health or neglected symptoms 
 may seriously compromise all the rest of life, and 
 life's happiness. This consideration is of greater 
 importance than a hundred years of " schooling." 
 
 The young lady period as perhaps that season 
 may be called between the close of school yeara 
 and the time of marriage has also its j,ecuU<ir
 
 PREPARATION FOR MATERNITY. SJl 
 
 needs. However, what has been said o* young 
 girls is true, with the requisite qualifications, of 
 marriageable maidens also. They must be allowed 
 more elaborateness and adornment of attire. They 
 range, with more or less of freedom, through some 
 circuit of entertainments and company. They 
 read novels ; they are out late ; they swallow solid 
 or liquid trash ; they dance, they flirt, they court 
 until marriage conies to close the last scene of 
 this strange, eventful history and then to reopen 
 it, as soon as the birth-cry of the first-born thrills 
 the mother's heart. 
 
 Great harm is often done to maidens for want of 
 knowledge in them, or wisdom and care in their 
 parents. The extremes of fashions are very prone 
 to violate not only taste, but physiology. Such 
 cases are, tight lacing, low-necked dresses, thin 
 shoes, heavy skirts. And yet, if the ladies only 
 knew it, the most attractive costumes are not the 
 extremes of fashions, but those which conform to 
 fashion enough to avoid oddity, which preserve 
 decorum and health fulness, whether or no; and 
 here is the great seciot of successful dress vary the 
 fashion so as to suit the style of the individual. 
 
 A sensible girl and her sensible mother can 
 accomplish all this. Indeed, let such a pair as that 
 consult confidentially and unreservedly, and that 
 girl is safe every way. She will dress beautifully, 
 and yet comfortably; she will enjoy heiself com-
 
 34 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 pletely, and yet without disordering her stomach, 
 killing the roses in her cheeks, or draining her life 
 D ut in i'utigues and sleeplessness; she will read 
 extensively and abundantly, yet without slip-slop- 
 ping her mind away with the novels of the foolish 
 sort, or inflaming and disorganizing it with such 
 printed erysipelas as Braddou's and Ouida's books. 
 
 Last of all the parental cares is the use of what- 
 ever influence can be exerted in the matter of 
 courtship and marriage. Maidens, as well as youths, 
 must, after all, choose for themselves. It is their 
 own lives which they take in their hands as they 
 enter the marriage state, and not their parents'; 
 and as the consequences aifect them primarily, it is 
 the plainest justice that with the responsibility 
 should be joined the right of choice. 
 
 The parental influence, then, must be indirect 
 and advisory. Indirect, through the whole bring- 
 ing up of their daughter; for if they have trained 
 her aright, she will be incapable of enduring a fool, 
 still more a knave. ; her feminine instincts and in- 
 tuitions, cultivated and sanctified by the purity and 
 intelligent thought of a refined home, will have 
 become capable of giving great light upon any 
 question of liking or disliking that may arise, and 
 die truthful unreserve of a good daughter with a 
 good mother will usually supply all the further 
 gu.dar.ee that is necessary. If a sensible matron 
 and a sensible maiden together cannot conclude
 
 PREPARATION FOR MATERNITY. 35 
 
 pretty safely in any case where a young man is 
 concerned, the question may about as well be 
 decided by tossing up a cent. 
 
 Yet there are some points respecting the inter- 
 course of young women with young men that are 
 worth referring to. They come pretty much with in 
 one general rule : 
 
 A young woman and a young man had better not 
 be alone together very much until they are married. 
 
 This will be found to prevent a good many 
 troubles. It is not meant to imply that either sex, 
 or any member of it, is worse than another, or bad 
 at all, or anything bat human. It is simply the 
 prescription of a safe, general rule. It is no more 
 an imputation than the rule that people had better 
 not be left without oversight in presence of large 
 sums of other folks' money. This does not mean 
 that people are thieves it means only that they 
 are human; and it will be found in practice that 
 the more thoroughly honest a man is, the more 
 careful he is to avoid any pecuniary temptation 
 himself, and to provide for constant and stringent 
 oversight upon himself. 
 
 It is not good for a young man and a young 
 woman to be left much alone together either in a 
 dimly lighted room or a brightly lighted one; nor 
 anywhere, except where they are liable to the or- 
 dinary interruptions of the household. The close 
 personal proximity ef the sexes is greatly unde-
 
 36 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 sirable before marriage. Kisses and caresses are 
 most properly the monopoly of wives. Such indul- 
 gences have a direct and powerful physiological 
 effect. Nay they often lead to the most fatal re- 
 sults. 
 
 At some time before marriage, those who are to 
 enter into it ought to be made acquainted with 
 some of the plainest common-sense limitations 
 which should govern their new relations to each 
 other. Ignorance in such matters has caused an 
 infinite quantity of disgust, pain, and unhappiness. 
 It is not necessary to specify particulars here; 
 but if the mother of every bride would instruct 
 her daughter in what a woman should comply 
 with her husband, and when and how she ought to 
 seek to decline compliance ; and if the father of 
 every bridegroom would instruct his son as to the 
 just limits of indulgence, as to a gentleman's duty 
 of self-control and respect toward a lady, and as to 
 the proper occasions for exe~?ising such self-con- 
 trol in the marital relations, chis is all Uiat could 
 be done, and it would be a great, deal.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EXERCISE DURING PREGNANCY. 
 
 IN considering how the mother can adjust hei 
 ways of living during pregnancy in such a manner 
 as to insure the termination of the process in the 
 safest and easiest manner possible, the question oi 
 bodily exercise may be first discussed. 
 
 It is, no doubt, almost needless to argue that 
 some such general preparation, by careful living 
 luring pregnancy, is best. But much more than 
 such a mere general careful living is best. The 
 period of gestation should be solicitously em- 
 ployed for the purpose in question, on system, 
 regularly, and under the best accessible instruc- 
 tions. 
 
 It may not be generally known that before the 
 performance of many important surgical opera- 
 tions, it is the practice to carry patients through a 
 course of training on purpose to prepare their 
 bodies to endure the expected strain upon them. 
 This training differs, of course, from that by which 
 pugilists prepare their bodies for the immense 
 exertion of a fight ; but its purpose is just the same 
 
 4
 
 38 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 to prepare the body to endure, with the least 
 possible pain and injury, an unusual and violent 
 exertion or strain. Dr. Storer (Gynecological 
 Journal, ii. 19), thus refers to this training for 
 surgical purposes : 
 
 " Preparation of the patient before an opera- 
 tion, by weeks or months of careful general regi- 
 men, or of special care, .... depuration of the 
 blood and its enrichment preparatory to the tax 
 upon it these were matters of cardinal impor- 
 tance." 
 
 There are, undoubtedly, cases in which great 
 care needs to be taken to avoid motion during 
 pregnancy. These cases are, where there is dan- 
 ger of miscarriage. This is a misfortune which, 
 for some unknown reason, grows into what may 
 be called a constitutional habit more quickly, and 
 becomes confirmed more surely and permanently, 
 than almost any other. Wtere it has once taken 
 place, the danger of its happening again is greatly 
 increased ; and the utmost care is usually neces- 
 sary to bring the system back again to its natural 
 condition. One of the most important precautions 
 for this purpose is to be as nearly motionless as 
 possible ; for the local weakness which exists in 
 such cases seems to depend greatly upon an ina- 
 bility to resist what may be called the mechanical 
 results even of the ordinary exertions of every-day 
 life ; and the restoration of the healthy local con-
 
 EXERCISE DURING PREJNAXCY. 89 
 
 seem to depend greatly upon the avoidance 
 of such exertion. 
 
 Leaving out, however, such exceptions, the gen- 
 eral rule is not that indolence promotes the health 
 and the easy p;irturitioii of the mother, and the 
 health and safety of her offspring, but exactly the 
 contrary. From the beginning of pregnancy, even 
 more care than usu^l should be taken to use regu- 
 lar, abundant, and healthful (N. B., not excessive 
 nor violent) exercise, particularly during the first 
 months of the period. As its termination ap- 
 proaches, more and more repose may be sought, ad 
 circumstances shall indicate. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Bull, an experienced and sensible 
 English obstetrical practitioner, gives the follow- 
 ing clear and useful directions on this point : 
 
 " During the first six or seven months, frequent 
 arid gentle exercise in the open air and domestic 
 occupations which require moderate exertion, are 
 exceedingly desirable ; both have a beneficial influ- 
 ence on the health of the mother, and through her. 
 upon the child. The former invigorates health, 
 the. latter contributes, by its regular return and 
 succession of duties, to employ her 1'me, and thus 
 insures that ease and serenity of mind so essential 
 to her happiness. On the other hand, excessive 
 effeminacy is highly injurious. The female whose 
 time 's spent in indolence, continually reclining 
 >n a softly-cushioned sofa, in the unwholesome
 
 40 PAErUKlTION W1THOU1 
 
 atmosphere of an over-heated apartment, w/io nevei 
 breathes the fresh and pure air of heaven, but is 
 fearful of even putting her foot to the ground, and 
 who yet, perhaps, at the same time indulges pretty 
 freely an immoderate appetite, under such circum- 
 stances, is not likely to preserve her health, much 
 less to improve it; in fact, it must suffer serious 
 injury. Unfortunately the evil will not stop here ; 
 for by such improper and injudicious conduct the 
 nutrition and growth of the child must, as a natu- 
 ral consequence, be much interfered with, and when 
 born, it will be feeble, perhaps emaciated, and will 
 be reared with difficulty. 
 
 " During the last few weeks exercise should still 
 be taken in the open air; but as walking, with 
 some, is now attended with inconvenience, and so 
 quickly with fatigue, that it is injurious instead of 
 useful, exercise in a convenient and easy carriage 
 becomes indispensable. Domestic duties must be 
 almost altogether given up; and the recumbent 
 position ought to be resorted to for at least two or 
 three hours in the course of the day ; and it should 
 never be forgotten that throughout the whole 
 period of pregnancy, every kind of agitating exer- 
 cise, such as riding in a ca'riage with rapidity on 
 uneven roads, dancing mucn and frequently, lift- 
 ing or carrying heavy weights, ought to be avoided j 
 in short, all masculine aud fatiguing employment* 
 whatever."
 
 EXKRCISE DUKINtr PREGNANCY, 4} 
 
 Dr. Verdi, in his Maternity, devotes t/it little 
 space to general hygiene, as his work is a detailed 
 enumeration of maladies and their remedies. The 
 half-dozen lines in which he condenses his recom- 
 mendations on this question of exercise are very 
 solid sense. He says: 
 
 " Take daily exercise in the open air ; do not 
 lace; do not run; do not jump; do not drive un- 
 safe horses ; give up dancing and riding" [?'. e., on 
 horseback]; "do not plunge into cold water. 
 Many women in your condition will tell you they 
 have done these things, and no harm befell them ; 
 still, do none of them. Sponging your body will 
 answer for cleanliness, and a happy heart for the 
 dancing and riding." 
 
 "A gently active life," is the still briefer and 
 very judicious phrase used by another authority, 
 who adds that even the strongest must be careful 
 to practise moderation in this activity. 
 
 Moderate, gentle, agreeable exercise daily, then, 
 is the rule; some of it in the open air always if 
 possible; and to include, where it is otherwise ex- 
 pedient, a share of the housework. This etercise 
 to be taken more especially during the first seven 
 months or thereabouts of pregnancy, and to be 
 gradually diminished as health and comfort re- 
 quire, until confinement. Good exercises are, walk- 
 ing, but not to fa f igue; driving, but over smooth 
 roads, at a moderate speed, and with safe horses 
 
 4*
 
 2 PARTimiTION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 The things to be avoided are: fatigue, an<i 
 sudden strains and exertions; and things that 
 ought not to be done, as liable to produce those 
 results, are : riding on horseback ; driving rapidly, 
 or so as to be jolted, in a carriage; riding in 
 railway cars; dancing; running; jumping; reach- 
 ing aloft (as in hanging out clothes, or putting 
 up curtains) ; carrying weights (as a pail of water, 
 a heavy basket, etc.) ; standing or kneeling for a 
 long time ; singing much while in either of these 
 postures. 
 
 In all this, moreover, it should be remembered 
 that the forenoon is the best part of the day for 
 exercise: the afternoon the second best only; the 
 evening the worst ; and early going to bed highly 
 expedient. Exercising in the morning, and avoid- 
 ing it in the latter part of the afternoon and even- 
 ing, will secure two advantages : first, the use of 
 the best of the physical strength, and thus avoid- 
 ing the additional risks from exertion when the 
 body is more or less fatigued with the results of 
 the day's occupation ; and second, the use of the 
 best of the sunshine and air, which are always 
 more vital and inspiring in the forenoon ; while 
 toward evening there is risk of harm from damp- 
 ness, dew, and cold. 
 
 One caution should here be added, which has 
 become necessary only of late years. During preg- 
 nancy oven more care than usual should be oi>
 
 EXERCISE DURING PREGNANCY. 4JJ 
 
 served, to avoid doing treadle-work, ei:her on a 
 sewing-machine, or on a melodeon or othei sinv 
 ilarly operated musical ii.etrument. This i& 
 point of much importance.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE 8ITZ-BATH, AND BATHING GENERALLY, IH 
 PREGNANCY. 
 
 BATHING, like eating, should be agreeable. For 
 healthy people, and properly managed, it is agree- 
 able. It is an error to insist upon one particulai 
 mode of applying water to everybody alike. 
 Strength, constitution, present physical condition, 
 previously acquired habits, should all be considered. 
 It would be inconsiderate if not quackish, for in- 
 stance, to prescribe a full bath in cold water 
 immediately upon getting out of bed, for every- 
 body, men, women, and children, sick or well, all 
 alike. Some persons of abundant vitality and 
 great and prompt reactive power, would find a daily 
 thorough plunge and swim agreeable, even if they 
 had to cut a hole in the ice to make room enough 
 to swim in ; whilo another, of weaker physique, 
 might be so chilled by the process as to experience 
 dangerous internal congestions or other affections 
 of the circulation and vifal processes. 
 
 Accordingly, the bath should be cold, tepid, 
 warm, or hot ; full or partial ; by plunge, sponge, 
 douche, sitz, etc. ; at rising, before meals, c * bed-
 
 GENERAL BATHING IN PKEGNANCY. 4ft 
 
 time, and so on, is the condition and characteristics 
 of the individual require. 
 
 These suggestions are especially important, of 
 course, in regulating the use of the bath during 
 pregnancy. As in the case of physical exercise, a 
 proper allowance of it is of great importance and 
 advantage, while excess or error in employing it 
 may do much harm. 
 
 The milder of the modern methods of hydro- 
 pathic practice afford very sensible directions for 
 managing the application of baths for medical or 
 physiological purposes; and such suggestions as 
 are here offered are believed to be in accordance 
 with those mild methods. 
 
 The usual bathing for cleanliness, it is taken for 
 granted, will be kept up during pregnancy, o' 
 course. That use of cold or tepid water which 
 has been found suitable for this purpose will not be 
 less agreeable, healthful, or restful, at this period 
 than at others. 
 
 Of the use of the sitz-batu in particular, Dr. 
 Shew speaks as follows : 
 
 " Pregnant women receive much benefit from a 
 constant use of this bath. A small tub of suf- 
 ficient size, set upon a very low stool, or anything 
 by which it may be raised a few inches, is quite 
 sufficient. Unpainted wood is the best material, 
 metal being unpleasant and cold. The water is 
 used from one to fire or six inches deep. The
 
 40 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN 
 
 length jf t.me this bath is used varies from a few 
 minutes to two hours or more. To avoid exposure 
 to cold, it is best to uncover only the part of the 
 person to be exposed to the water. This bath haa 
 the effect of strengthening the nerves, or drawing the 
 blood and humors from the head, chest, and abdo- 
 men, and of relieving pain and flatulency ; and is ol 
 the utmost value to those of sedentary habits. It is 
 sometimes well to take a foot bath, tepid or cold, at 
 *.he same time. If a large quantity of cold water 
 were used in this bath, it would remain cold too 
 long, and thus drive the blood to the head and 
 upper parts of the body, which might be very 
 injurious; but the small quantity of water used at 
 once becomes warm, and thus admits of speedy 
 reaction. In some local diseases of the lower parts, 
 where there is inflammation, and the cold water feels 
 most agreeable, the water is frequently changed. 
 If there is any inclination to headache, or too 
 much heat in the head, a cold bandage upon the 
 forehead or temples is good. It is often well to 
 rub the abdomen briskly during this bath. The 
 sitz-bath may be used by any person, whether in 
 health or otherwise, without the slightest fear of 
 taking cold. Let those subject to giddiness, head- 
 aches, or congestion of blood in the upper re- 
 gions, try this, and they will at once perceive its 
 utility." 
 The tub or bath used for this purpose should bo
 
 GENERAL BATHING IN PREGNANCY. 47 
 
 l&rge enough to admit of rubbing the person, if 
 desirable. It will be found a great convenience to 
 raise it a few inches from the floor. Care should 
 be taken not to use the sitz-bath while the stomach 
 is fully occupied in digestion, as the call madj 
 upon the skin and circulation by the bath diverts 
 too much of the vital power from the stomach lu 
 his Water Cure Manual, Dr. Shew thus sun.3 up 
 the uses of the sitz-bath : 
 
 " As a tonic to the stomach, liver, bowels, womb, 
 spine, etc., this bath is highly useful. In constipa- 
 tion and other irregularities it is famous. Those of 
 sedentary habits will find its use of rare service. 
 For the tonic effect, it is taken for from ten to 
 twenty-five minutes or more. If it is continued 
 some longth of time, the water is to be changed 
 once or more, as it would otherwise become too 
 warm. 
 
 "In pregnancy, besides general ablutions, the 
 semi-daily use of this bath is productive of great 
 good. In those troublesome itchings (pruritus 
 pudendi), this application should be made as often 
 as the symptoms occur, and the remedy will be 
 found a sovereign one. 
 
 "In piles and hemorrhoids the cold-hip bath is 
 used, and in all acute diseases of the genital 
 organs. 
 
 The best time in the day for the sitz-bath ig 
 just before rctirirg for the night. Probably the best
 
 48 PAllTUUITlON WITHOUT Pi IN. 
 
 temperature for the water is 90 F. No shock shoiud 
 1/e given to the system, and the bath should be so 
 arranged as to be entirely comfortable. It is well, 
 while in the bath, to have an attendant rub 
 thoroughly but gently the back, from the shoulders 
 down to the hips, with the bare hand, and also the 
 sides and abdomen. Besides the general tonio 
 effect upon the whole system, this practice, 
 Btrengthens all the muscles of those parts greatly, 
 and relieves any congestion that may have been 
 caused by clothing or other means. We have 
 never known a woman who used the sitz-bath 
 properly during pregnancy but found great benefit 
 from it
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PAINLESS PARTURITION BY FRUIT DIET. 
 
 IN 1841, there was privately printed in England, 
 a small pamphlet of twenty-two pages, in which a 
 gentleman, who was a chemist, gave an account ol 
 an experiment he himself tried in the case of his 
 wife, whose labors had been so excessively painful 
 that there was much reason to fear she would not 
 survive the next one. The result was so favorable 
 that he felt it his duty to publish it Avith his name 
 and residence, and a reference to "the ladies, No. 
 27 Charlotte Street, Portland Place, London," 
 where inquiries might be made by others wishing 
 to verify the experiment; and where, it was re- 
 quested, might be left accounts of other successful 
 results of the plan of action. 
 
 A few experiments were made in Boston and 
 vicinity with distinguished success ; when the dis- 
 covery of ether rather threw it into the shade. 
 As, however, there are persons, especially out of 
 New England, who do not use ether, the following 
 extracts are made from the pamphlet in question, 
 which has now become very scarce, and indeed) 
 pnicti ^illy inaccessible. It will be best to begin b_j 
 5
 
 60 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 stating the principle of the system, with which th 
 experimenter ends his account, viz., "In proportion 
 aa a woman subsists during pregnancy upon ali- 
 ment which is free from earthy and bony matter, 
 will she avoid pain and danger in delivery; hence 
 the more ripe fruit, acid fruit in particular, and the 
 less of other kinds of food, but particularly of bread 
 or pastry of any kind, is consumed, the less will be 
 danger and sufferings of childbirth." 
 
 The subject of this experiment had, within 
 three years, given birth to two children ; and no* 
 only suffered extremely in the parturition, but for 
 two or three months previous to delivery her gene- 
 ral health was very indifferent; her lower extremi- 
 ties exceedingly swelled and painful ; the veins so 
 full and prominent as to be almost bursting; in 
 fact, to prevent such a catastrophe, bandages had 
 to be applied ; and for the few last weeks of gesta- 
 tion, her size and weight were such as to prevent 
 her attending to her usual duties. She had on 
 this occasion, two years and a half after her last 
 delivery, advanced full seven months in pregnancy 
 before she commenced the experiment at her hus- 
 band's earnest instance; her legs and feet were, aa 
 before, considerably swelled, the veins distended 
 and knrtty. and her health diminishing. 
 
 She began the experiment in the first week of 
 January, 1841. She commenced by eating an
 
 TAIN LESS PAUriJIllTiON BY FKUIT DIET. .*>! 
 
 appi? und an orange the first thing in the morn- 
 iug iina Hgaiii at nigh^. This was continued ibi 
 about four days, when she took just before break- 
 fast in addition to the apple and orange, the juice 
 of a lemon mixed with sugar, and at breakfast 
 two or three roasted apples, taking a very small 
 quantity of her usual food, viz., wheaten bread and 
 butter. During the forenoon she took an orange 
 or two and an apple. For dinner took fish c 
 flesh in a small quantity, and potatoes, greens, 
 and apples the apples sometimes peeled and cut 
 into pieces ; sometimes boiled whole, along with 
 the potatoes ; sometimes roasted before the fire, 
 and afterward mixed with sugar. In the afternoon 
 she sucked an orange or ate an apple or some 
 grapes, and always took some lemon-juice mixed 
 with sugar or treacle. At first the fruits acted 
 strongly on the stomach and intestines, but this 
 soon ceased, and she could take several lemons 
 without inconvenience. For supper she had 
 again roasted apples or a few oranges, and rice 
 or sago boiled in milk ; sometimes the apples, 
 peeled and cored, were boiled along with the rice 
 and sago. On several occasions she took for 
 supper apples and raisins, or figs with an orange 
 cut among them, and sometimes, all stewed to- 
 gether. Two or three times a week she took a 
 teaspoon ful of a mixture made of the juice of two 
 oranges, one lemon, half a pound of grapes, and 
 5*
 
 62 PARTURITION W1T110UT PAIN. 
 
 it quarter of a pound of sugar or treacle. Th 
 sugar or treacle served mainly to cover the taste 
 of the acids, but all saccharine matter is very 
 nutritious. The object in giving these acids 
 was to dissolve as much as possible the earthy 
 or bony matter which she had taken with her food 
 in the first seven months of her pregnancy. 
 
 She continued in this course for six weeks, when 
 to her surprise and satisfaction, the swelled and 
 prominent state of the veins, which existed before 
 she began, had entirely subsided ; her legs and 
 feet, which were also swelled considerably, had re- 
 turned to their former state ; and she became so 
 light and active, she could run up and down a 
 Right of more than twenty stairs with more ease 
 than usual when she was perfectly well. Her 
 health became unwontedly excellent, and scarcely 
 an ache or a pain affected her up to the night of her 
 delivery. Even her breasts, which at the time she 
 commenced the experiment, as well as during her 
 former pregnancies, were sore and tender, became 
 entirely free from pain, and remained in the very 
 best condition after her delivery also, ard during 
 her nursing. 
 
 At nine o'clock on the evening of March 3d, 
 after having cleaned her apartments, she was in tht 
 adjoining yard shaking her own caipets, which 
 ehe did with as much ease as any one else could 
 have done. At half-past ten she said she believed
 
 PAINL1SSS PARTURITION B1 FRUIT DIKT. 53 
 
 nei "time was come/' and the accoucheur wua 
 Bent for. At* one o'clock the surgeon had left the 
 room. He knew nothing of the experiments being 
 made, but on being asked, on paper, by the husband 
 two days afterward, if he " could pronounce it at 
 safe and as easy a delivery as he generally met with," 
 he replied, on paper, "I hereby testify that 1 
 attended Mrs. Rowbotham on the 3d instant, and 
 that she had a safe labor, and more easy than I 
 generally meet with." On his asking the female 
 midwife if she thought it as easy as usual, she 
 replied, "Why! I should say that a more easy 
 labor I never witnessed I never saw such a thing, 
 and I have been at a great many labors in my time." 
 The child, a boy, was finely proportioned and 
 exceedingly soft, his bones being all in gristle, but 
 he became of large size and very graceful, athletic, 
 and strong as he grew up. The diet of his mother 
 was immediately changed on his birth, and she 
 eat bread and milk and all articles of food in 
 which phosphate of lime is to be found, and which 
 had been left out before. She also got up from 
 her confinement immediately and well. After her 
 last delivery, July, 1838, full ten days elapsed be- 
 fore she could leave her bed, and then she swooned 
 at the first attempt; on this occasion, March, 
 1841, she left her bed the fourth day, and not only 
 washed but partly dresed herself. Had she not 
 been influenced by custom and somewhat
 
 M PAKTURIT7ON WlTHl UT PAIN. 
 
 she might have done so sooner. To be assisted 
 appeared like a burlesque to her. not- to say annoy- 
 ance. She had no assistance from medicine ; only 
 one bottle bad been sent by the surgeon, and thia 
 she refused to take. 
 
 In the former pregnancy she had subsisted very 
 much on bread, puddings, pics, and all kinds of 
 pastry, having an idea that solid food of this kind 
 was necessary to support and nourish the foetus 
 and it is quite right to suppose that nutritious food 
 is necessary for this purpose ; but nutritious food 
 can be had without that hard and bony matter, 
 which "Is so large an ingredient in wheaten flour, for 
 instance. The West Indian grains sago, tapioca, 
 rice, etc. have little of it ; and Mr. Rowbotham 
 made a table of substances, with the proportion of 
 phosphate of lime in each, BO that it may be 
 avoided in the food during pregnancy, and used 
 afterward in nursing, when the bones and teeth 
 of the child are made. Wheat contains most 
 earthy matter. [In Parke's Chemical Catechism, 
 page 194, he quotes La Grange aa saying that 
 a person who eats a pound of farina a day, swal- 
 lows in a year three ounces, four clraohms, ana 
 forty-four grains of phosphate of lime.] 
 
 Beans, rye, oats, barley, have not so much 
 earthy matter as wheat. Potatoes and peas not 
 more than half as much ; flesh of fowls and )oung 
 animals one-tenth ; rice, sago, fish, eggs, etc still
 
 PAINLESS PARTURITION BT FRUIT DIET. 5fc 
 
 iess ; cheese, one-twentieth ; cabbage, savoy, broc- 
 coli, articnokes, coleworts, asparagus, endives, 
 rhubarb, cauliflower, celery, and fresh vegetables 
 generally ; turnips, carrots, onions, radishes, garlic, 
 parsley, spinage, small salad, lettuce, cucumbers, 
 leeks, beet-root, parsnips, mangel-wurzel, mush- 
 rooms, vegetable marrows, and all kinds of herbs 
 and flowers, average less than one-fifth; apples, 
 pears, plums, cherries, strawberries, gooseberries, 
 raspberries, cranberries, blackberries, huckleberries, 
 currants, melons, olives, peaches, apricots, pine- 
 apples, nectarines, pomegranates, dates, prunes, 
 raisins, figs, lemons, limes, oranges, and grapes, on 
 the average are two hundred times less ossifying than 
 bread or anything else prepared of wheaten flour. 
 
 Some articles, as honey, treacle, sugar, butter, 
 oil, vinegar, and alcohol, if unadulterated, are quite 
 free from earthy matter. But still worse than 
 wheaten flour is common salt, and nearly as bad 
 are pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cof- 
 fee, cocoa, Turkey rhubarb, liquorice, lentils, 
 cinchona or Peruvian barks, cascarilla, sarsapa- 
 rilla, and gentian. 
 
 With regard to drinks, :io water except rain 
 and snow, as it falls, and distilled water, is free from 
 earthy matter, and every family should have a 
 distilling apparatus ; and perhaps it would pay 
 capitalists to form a company for the purpose oi 
 distilling water on a large scale. Filtering M ate/
 
 66 PARTURITION WITH OUT PAIN. 
 
 is not sufficient to purify it of earthy mattei, be- 
 cause a filter can only remove such particles as are 
 mechanically mixed, and mere boiling produces no 
 beneficial change. Spring water, pure and limpid 
 as it appears to the eye, is found, upon chemical 
 examination, to contain a very large proportion 
 of calcareous earthy matter ; so much indeed that 
 it has been calculated that a person drinking an 
 average quantity of water per day for forty years, 
 will, in that time, take into his body as much as 
 would form a pillar of marble as large as an aver- 
 age-sized man. As it evaporates from the body, 
 it leaves behind the earthy matter which it holds 
 in solution, and thus tends to choke up or incrust 
 the blood-vessels and nerves ; in short, to harden 
 md petrify the whole system, in the same manner 
 as we find it incrust vessels from which water is 
 evaporated (for this incrusting only takes place 
 where the water goes off in the form of steam or 
 vapor). Water from rivers and pits, in addition 
 to calcareous earthy matter, generally contains 
 putrid or vegetable substances. 
 
 But drink of any kind is foreign to human na- 
 ture in its original capacity. If men ate every day 
 as much fruit as they ought, they would never oe 
 thirsty, and so need no drink at all. 
 
 Before adding to the above account of the 
 experiment others made in consequence of it, by 
 veil-known persons in England and America, we
 
 PAINLESS PARTUJUTIOX BY FHU1T DIK1. 5*1 
 
 may copy Mr. Kowbotham's account of the origin 
 of his idea. It was from reading, in the Penny 
 Cyclopedia, the following paragraph : 
 
 " When first the human embryo becomes dis- 
 tinctly visible it is almost wholly fluid, consisting 
 only of a soft gelatinous pulp. In this gelatin- 
 ous pulp solid substances are formed, which 
 gradually increase and are fashioned in organs. 
 These organs in their rudimentary state are soft 
 and tender; but in the progress of their develop- 
 ment, constantly acquiring a greater number of 
 solid particles the cohesion of which progressively 
 increases, the organs at length become dense and 
 firm. As the soft solids augment in bulk and 
 density, bony particles are deposited, sparingly at 
 first and in detached masses, but accumulated by 
 degrees; these too, are at length fashioned into 
 distinct osseous structures, which, extending in 
 every direction until they touch at every point, 
 ultimately form the connected bony framework 
 of the system. This bony fabric, although soft, 
 solid, and tender at first, becomes by degrees firm 
 and resisting." 
 
 Upon the above remarks he reasoned thus : 
 "If the first visible state of the human being 
 is that of a fluid, or soft gelatinous pulp ; and if 
 the embryo or foetus gradually consolidates, 01 
 increases in firmness and density bj the accumu 
 lation of bony particles, will it not, at any given
 
 58 PARTUFaXION WITHOU'I PAIN". 
 
 period of its existence, be more or less firm n& 
 cording to the bony matter which lias bjeu 
 deposited ? 
 
 " And is not the mother's blood the source of 
 tli is bony matter, since it builds, supports, and 
 nourishes the foetus ? 
 
 "And is not the mother's blood derived from her 
 food and drink ? and according to the proportion 
 of bony matter existing in them, will not the 
 foetus become more or less firm and resisting ?" 
 
 Moreover, he knew that it made all the differ- 
 ence whether the foetus were in gristle or not, at 
 birth, with respect to the pain of labor ; and that 
 it was better for the future size and beauty of 
 the child, and even its strength, that it should be 
 born with gristle, and not with the bones har- 
 dened, but that the latter process should be the 
 consequence of its own food taken after birth. 
 Hence he very philosophically concluded to try 
 the experiment of having his wife feed during 
 gestation on substaaces which did not hold a large 
 proportion of phosphate of lime, which is the hard 
 ingredient of bone, but take those substances 
 during her period of nursing, and feed the child 
 upon them during its growth. 
 
 The experiment succeeded in a partial trial in 
 this morbid case, and it has succeeded in every 
 normal case in which it has been tried, as far aa 
 is now known. The first case that is reported
 
 PAINLESS x AR'/URITIOBT BY (TRUIT DIET. 59 
 
 peisonally, was that of an English lady, who 
 had learned from the pamphlet. She brought to 
 America a most beautiful child, which attracted 
 every body's attention ; looking, as one person taid, 
 "like a young god." She said that from the first 
 moment she thought she was pregnant, she lived 
 without eating any bread, potatoes, or milk ; but 
 subsisted on sago, tapioca, rice, young meat when 
 she took meat, fruits of all kinds, and vegetables ; 
 and drank tea and lemonade made with distilled 
 water. She said she never had an hour of nausea 
 or discomfort during her pregnancy; had so easy 
 a labor that she thought it not worth dreading; 
 and her boy, small and ' soft at birth, became 
 unusually large, hard, and strong at six months. 
 When born, he, like Mr. Rowbotham's, was covered 
 from head to foot with a downy substance that 
 could only be seen when held against the light, 
 superior to the finest velvet, and of a beautiful 
 feathery appearance. 
 
 An American lady, who usually suffered terribly 
 in labor, immediately procured the pamphlet and 
 governed her diet by it partia ly, and had the easiest 
 labor she had ever had. Another, who governed 
 herself wholly by it, from the first moment she 
 was aware of being pregnant, like the English lady 
 never experienced a moment's discomfort before 
 delivery. She had taken nothing made of our 
 grains, but confined hemlf to the West Indiao
 
 60 PARTURITION WITHOU1 PAIN. 
 
 ones rice, sago, tapioca; and taking a cl.sgnst U 
 our summer fruits, subsisted largely on oran'ges, 
 tamarinds, marmalades, and also took a great many 
 lemons. At first, the fruits made her bowels too 
 loose, but she did not abandon them on that 
 account, but took mutton hroth with rice in it, to 
 convet this effect. She also took fish and sardines, 
 and the young of meats; for the older animals are, 
 the greater quantity of earthy matter is contained 
 in their secretions, and so it is even with milk. 
 She had so little thirst that she drank nothing 
 but a little tea made with distilled water. This 
 lady and her husband were neither of them very 
 young she was thirty-five and he forty at the 
 birth of her eldest child ; and she had been an 
 invalid in her chamber from fifteen to thirty years 
 of her life, though very well at the time of her 
 pregnancy, and for the first time of her life taking 
 much exercise in the open air. Consequently, and 
 because of her extreme nervous delicacy, she did 
 not escape pain in the labor the first time, and the 
 process was several hours. But in the two suc- 
 ceeding times, at the last of which she was f jrty, 
 the labors were very short and not at all severe. 
 In all the cases she rigidly adhered to the diet, 
 without a single day's exception ; and her three 
 children were perfectly splendid instances of large, 
 healthy, strong, and beautiful phym'quc. The 
 youngest of them is now eighteen years of age.
 
 PAINLKSS PARTURITION BY FRUIT DIET. 6l 
 
 Only one ever had any important illness, and 
 Jiat from extraneous cause, surmounted, as the 
 physician said, by her perfect constitution. The 
 teeth of all these children are very hard, like 
 rocks. 
 
 No other case is now known of such exact 
 compliance with the conditions as this one, but 
 in very many cases partial compliance, with cor- 
 responding success ; and it is worthy of observation 
 that in all those countries where tropical grains, 
 rather than those of the temperate zones, are the 
 food, and where vegetables and fruits predomi- 
 nate in the diet, as in the south of Europe, among 
 the negroes of the Southern United States, among 
 the Hindoos, and tropical nations generally, 
 parturition is nearly painless. Combe says : " The 
 very easy labors of native American negresses are 
 not explicable by any prerogative of physical for- 
 mation, for the pelvis is rather smaller in these 
 dark-colored races than in the European and other 
 white people." 
 
 Nor is it to be referred to habits of greater exer- 
 cise : "The Hindoo and other females, whose 
 habits are anything but laborious, have always 
 very easy labors." 
 
 In short, the diet is the only cause to which 
 
 et*sy or difficult labor may be referred in general. 
 
 In twenty-five years there has been known no 
 
 molhe? who tried this experiment who has not 
 
 fi
 
 02 PARTUKITKW WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 blessed the knowledge of it ; and it has saved man j 
 a young mother needless terror. 
 
 Thus far the pamphlet of Mr. Kowbotham. 
 
 A few additional observations on the subject of 
 diet, appetite, and the stomach luring pregnancy, 
 may not be out of place. 
 
 Derangement of the stomach, to greater or lesa 
 extent, is one of the most common and trustworthy 
 signs of pregnancy. The extent and troublesome- 
 ness of this ailment will, however, be found very 
 greatly diminished by the vegetable and fruit regi- 
 men above described, by the use of the bath, judi- 
 cious open-air exercise, etc. ; in short, by living in 
 a wise, active, cheerful, and healthful manner. 
 
 A common error is, that, during gestation, the 
 mother needs to " eat for two ;" that is, that more 
 food is necessary to support properly herself and 
 her growing infant than at other times. This is a 
 thorough delusion. On this point, and on diet 
 during pregnancy generally, Dr. Bull, the very 
 sensible and experienced English physician who 
 has been already referred to, says : 
 
 " We habitually take more food than is strictly 
 required for the demands of the body ; we there- 
 fore daily make more blood than is really wanted 
 for its support. A superfluity amply sufficient for 
 the no .mshment of the child is thus furnished 
 for a very small quantity is requisite without the 
 mother, on the one hand, feeling the demand to
 
 TAILLESS PARTOUIT1ON BY FKti/T DIET. 83 
 
 be u^/ressive, and, on the other, without a five) 
 indulgence of food being necessary to provide it 
 Natui 2 herself corroborates this opinion; indeed, 
 she so(icits a reduction in the quantity of support 
 rather than asks an increase of it ; for almost the 
 V*;ry first evidence of pregnancy is the morning 
 Biskness, which would seem to declare that the sys- 
 t'jm requires reduction rather than increase, or why 
 should this subduing process be instituted ? The 
 consequences, too, which inevitably follow the free 
 indulgence of a capricious, and what will after- 
 ward grow into a voracious appetite, decidedly 
 favor this opinion ; for the severest and most trying 
 cases of indigestion are by these means induce-'-, 
 the general health of the female disturbed and 
 More or less impaired, and through it the growth 
 a '.id vigor of the child 
 
 " If the appetite in the earlier months, from the 
 presence of morning sickness, is variable and capri- 
 cious, let her not be persuaded to humor and feed 
 its waywardness from the belief that it is neces- 
 sary so to do ; for if she does, she may depend upon 
 it, from such indulgence, it will soon require a 
 larger and more ample supply than is compatible 
 with her own health or that of her little one. 
 
 " If the general health, before pregnancy vaa 
 delicate and feeble, and, as a consequence of t!u3 
 state, becomes invigorated, and the powers of diges- 
 tion increase, a larger supply of nourishment is
 
 64 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 demanded, and may be met in sucli cast-, without 
 fear; for instead of being injurious, it will be 
 nseful 
 
 " Lastly, a female, toward the conclusion of 
 pregnancy, should be particularly careful not to be 
 persuaded to eat in the proportion of two persons, 
 for it may not only bring on vomiting, heartburn, 
 constipation, etc., but will contribute, from the 
 accumulation of impurities in the lower bowel, to 
 the difficulties of labor." 
 
 A few figures given by Dr. Dewees, whose, discus- 
 sion of this subject is exactly in harmony with Dr. 
 Bull's, show very clearly the absurdity of the idea 
 that it is necessary to " eat for two." They are in 
 substance as follows : 
 
 On an average, a new-born child, together with 
 all the accompanying materials expelled at birth, 
 weighs not more than ten pounds, viz., eight 
 pounds for the child itself, and two pounds for the 
 placenta, etc. A table of 7077 births in Paris 
 gave an average of about two pounds less than 
 this, being for the child itself just over six pounds. 
 Now, a daily supply of less than three-quarters of 
 an ounce, during the average two hundred and 
 eighty days of pregnancy, will amount to thia ten 
 pounds; and this daily supply is decidedly lesa 
 than the average quantity of unnecessary food 
 which is usually eaten. Since, therefore, we almost 
 always eat too much, and since the ordinary
 
 PAINLESS PARTURITION BY FRUIT D1E1. 65 
 
 ph:s is more than enough to supply the require- 
 ments of pregnancy, and particularly since tlit 
 natural symptoms of that state usually hid. cat e 
 less food rather than more, it is mere common 
 sense to conclude that pregnant women neither 
 want nor need to " eat for two." The fact is more 
 likely to be the seeming paradox that enough foi 
 one is too much for two ; i. e., that less food than 
 usual, rather than more, is best during pregnancy. 
 
 Regularity in hours of eating is advantageous 
 to the health ; and more care even than usual 
 should be taken during pregnancy to observe this 
 practice. Another almost or quite equally impor- 
 tant rule is, to eat nothing for four hours, or at 
 least for three hours, before going to bed. 
 
 Eating should also be as, indeed, it should 
 always be in moderation. It should be deliber- 
 ate, and it should be cheerful. Deliberation is 
 almost indispensable to moderation ; for it is the 
 sense of satisfaction of hunger that tells us when 
 to stop eating, and this sense is blunted and almost 
 useless when the food is swallowed rapidly and 
 without thorough chewing. And the appetizing 
 effect and healthful stimulus of cheerfulness at 
 meals is too well known to require any detailed 
 enforcement in this place, 
 a*
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 THE MINI) DURING GESTATION. 
 
 THE process of gestation produces a kind of 
 revolution in the organism of the mother, fre- 
 quently of a very marked character. This is some- 
 times the case to such a degree, that she may 
 almost be said to live two lives ; one while she is 
 pregnant, and one while she is not. 
 
 Some women experience a greatly improved state 
 of health during pregnancy, both bodily and men- 
 tally. They feel uncommonly activt, strong, gay, 
 and happy. This is, however, not common. It is 
 much more usual for the mother to be subject to 
 loss of appetite, nausea, and to other disturbances 
 of the stomach and other internal organs ; to be 
 annoyed by low spirits, fancies, and " longings ;'* 
 to be nervous and irritable ; and sometimes to be 
 seriously disordered in mind for the time being. 
 
 Many women experience a good deal of discom- 
 fort from their fears of the pain of childbirth, and 
 even from an apprehension that they will not sur- 
 vive it. Such apprehensions are, of course, noi 
 wholly to be avoided ; yet, unless the assertions 
 nd reasonings of the present work are thoroughlj
 
 THE MIND DURING GESTATION. 67 
 
 wrong, it is true that both the ailments of preg- 
 nancy and the danger and pain of parturition can 
 be, in all ordinary cases, almost entirely done away 
 with. And as for the danger, even in the present 
 ordinary condition of affairs, where no efficient 
 means are used to prepare the patient for labor 01 
 to carry her comfortably through it even now, 
 the actual danger of childbirth is so small, that 
 there is no more need of being terrified about it, 
 than about any common attack of illness. How 
 trifling is the real risk from childbearing is forcibly 
 shown in some laboriously compiled tables in 
 Duncan's Mortality of Childbed Hospitals, which 
 show that it is one hundred and twenty to one, 
 even in hospitals, that the childbearing woman 
 will recover. Her chances are better than this in 
 private practice, because health, attendance, and 
 comfort average better in private families. 
 
 Indeed, it would be a strange self-contradiction 
 of the divinely established order of things, if child- 
 bearing were such as to be actually a danger to 
 the mother. It is hardly possible to conceive of a 
 wise and kind Creator ordaining death or danger 
 as constant companions in the individual to a pro- 
 cess which is the very life of the species to sup- 
 pose him regularly imperilling the life of that very 
 mother whose existence is all but indispensable to 
 her helpless infant. 
 
 There is no more need of apprehension about a
 
 68 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 painful or difficult labor than of the loss of life ; 
 for even under the ordinary regimen such cases are 
 really uncommon, and almost every one passei 
 through the ordeal without more suffering than 
 she can well endure. Moreover, it is a well-known 
 fact that even where the pain of childbirth is great 
 at the immediate occasion, yet, owing to sonw 
 wisely bestowed provision of nature, the impression 
 of it vanishes almost with the pain itself, not 
 leaving the nervous weakness and dread which 
 often make the memory of physical suffering a 
 serious burden long after the reality is over. 
 
 Further, setting aside these general considera- 
 tions, others, which it is a principal object of thia 
 little book to explain, are additional reasons foi 
 confidence. One of these is, the extraordinary 
 facilitation of the process of labor by the Fruit 
 Diet system explained in the preceding chapter; 
 and another, the hardly less assistance which can be 
 derived, where it is deemed necessary by the med- 
 ical adviser, from the use of anaesthetics, as will 
 be shown in a following chapter. 
 
 These brief suggestions must suffice for the 
 topic of anticipated sufferings. 
 
 Happiness, or at least content, or if not, at any 
 rate good humor, is, it may almost be said, a duty 
 during pregnancy. At any rate, all the best author- 
 ities, ancient and modern, agree in saying that 
 the cheerful or sorrowful state of the mother is
 
 THE MIND DURING GESTATION. 69 
 
 often gradually, quietly, and indelibly transferred 
 to the disposition of the child while yet unborn. 
 Thus Mrs. Gleason, in her Talks to my Patients* 
 observes, " Many times, in the care of chronic 
 invalids, I find some peculiar tendency to irrita- 
 bility or mental depression which I cannot explain, 
 and ask if there was anything unfortunate in their 
 mother's constitution previous to their birth, and 
 often receive for reply, ' I was an unwelcome child, 
 and my mother was very unhappy in the prospect 
 of another baby, and I, too, wish I had never been 
 born.' " 
 
 A moderately active and hygiemcally correct 
 way of living, according to the directions in this 
 book, will very greatly promote mental ease and 
 comfort, and additional help can be derived from 
 sensible self-control. This, however, must be a 
 habit previously acquired. It cannot be taken 
 np at a moment's notice by one previously in 
 habits of peevishness, or anger, or grief; and this 
 faot lends additional force to the considerationa 
 suggested in Chapter IV., as to the influence of 
 the whole previous life on the maternal functions. 
 
 In discussing this point, Dr. Dewees says, "The 
 physical treatment of children should begin, as far 
 
 * Talks to my Patients ; Hints on Getting Well and 
 Keeping Well, by Mrs. R. B. Gleason, M.D. New York 
 Wood & Holbrook, Publishers. An excellent and in- 
 structive work on l:uli<' health and its management.
 
 10 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 as may be practicable, with the earliest formation 
 of the embryo ; it will therefore necessarily involve 
 the conduct of the mother even before her marriage, 
 as well as during the period of pregnancy." Again, 
 the same high authority remarks, " How especially 
 essential and proper are certain observances of the 
 mother during pregnancy, that, she may insure 
 desirable dispositions to her infant" 
 
 Dr. Dewees thus enumerates the possible evils 
 of indulging a bad temper during pregnancy: 
 
 " The immediate evils which may result from 
 yielding to temper, are convulsions, nervous 
 inquietudes, uterine haemorrhage, and perhaps 
 abortion. Should this last not occur, the foetus 
 may yet receive such injury as shall impair its 
 natural stamina, and thus entail upon it a feeble- 
 ness of constitution so long as it may live. It is 
 a remark long since made, and we believe it to be 
 in perfect conformity with fact, that passionate 
 and irritable women are more prone to abortion 
 than those of an opposite temperament. . . . 
 
 " Nothing contributes more certainly to the 
 safety and future good health of the child than 
 cheerfulness of mind, or at least equanimity, on the 
 part of the mother." 
 
 A well-known belief respecting both the mental 
 and physical condition of women during gestation 
 is, that they are subject to what are called " long 
 ings," viz., desires ft r some article, usually of diet,
 
 THE MIND DUKING GESTATION. 71 
 
 which desires must be gratified, or else the child 
 when born will be found " marked" with a spot in 
 the similitude of the things longed for. Thia 
 notion is mostly nonsense. Considering that the 
 process of gestation renders the mother peculiarly 
 liable to both bodily .and mental disturbances, she 
 is justly entitled to additional care and kindness, 
 exactly as any person is who is similarly affected 
 from whatever cause. Therefore, her wishes should 
 be gratified as far as practicable, even though they 
 may seem unreasonable. Where they are obviously 
 wrong they should not be gratified ; and there 
 need be no fear of any really dangerous conse- 
 quences from a refusal. " Uugratified longings," 
 observes Dewees, "may cause sickness at the 
 stomach, temporary loss of appetite, sometimes 
 vomiting ; but here the evil ceases, so far as we have 
 observed." 
 
 On these same points of self-control, of reason- 
 able indulgence, and effects of temper and of 
 " longing," Dr. Verdi says : 
 
 " It will do no harm to avoid what is repugnant 
 to you, but it may be detrimental to your health 
 to satisfy the longing for slate-pencil, chalk, or 
 other deleterious substances which sometimes 
 women in your condition crave 
 
 ' ' But above all, keep a cheerful mind and do not 
 yield to grief, jealousy, hatred, discontent, or any 
 perversion of disposition. It is true that your very
 
 72 PAETUKITION WITHOUT PATN. 
 
 coniition makes you more sensitive and irritable, 
 still, knowing this, control your feelings with all 
 your moral strength. 
 
 " Your husband should be aware, also, that this 
 unusual nervous irritability is a physical conse- 
 quence of your condition, and would therefore 
 be more indulgent and patient, unless he is a 
 brute. 
 
 " If you believe that strong impressions upon 
 the mother's mind may communicate themselves 
 to the foetus, producing marks, deformity, etc., 
 h.ow much more should you believe that irritability, 
 anger, repiniugs, spiritual disorders, may be im- 
 pressed upon your child's moral and mental nature, 
 rendering it weakly or nervous, passionate or 
 morose, or in some sad way a reproduction of your 
 own evil feelings. And, indeed, this is more fre- 
 quently found to be the case than is the phys- 
 ical marking of a child by its mother's impres- 
 sions." 
 
 With regard to the belief that sudden frights or 
 painful or startling impressions of any kind upon 
 the mother produce corresponding results upon 
 her unborn child, there is a conflict of evidence, 
 bat, it is believed, with a decided preponderance 
 against the existence of such liability. The case 
 stands somewhat thus : 
 
 There are many accounts, very detailed and 
 circumstantial, of the birth of children with
 
 THE MIND Ul.'RING GESTATHO. '16 
 
 marks corresponding to the painful impressions 
 ipon the mother during pregnancy. These cases 
 are to the same extent proved as are casos of 
 modern miracles by images of the Virgin Mary, 
 many spiritualist phenomena, etc. That is, many 
 perfectly honest and respectable people have be- 
 lieved in their occurrence. 
 
 But, in the first place, there is no nervous con- 
 nection between the mother and her unborn child ; 
 and therefore the only means known to physiology 
 by which sudden impressions can be transmitted 
 are absent. Gradual modifications, derived from 
 the continued circulation of the same supply of 
 blood through both bodies, are on a very different 
 footing. Moreover, there are many recorded cases 
 of the occurrence of terrible experiences during 
 pregnancy without any ill results on the child. 
 Cases even are recorded of the death of the mother 
 and the subsequent birth (though of course in a 
 very short period) of a healthy cbild. And again, 
 physicians have more than once instituted system- 
 atic and extensive inquiries for authentic in- 
 stances of "mother's marks" without finding even 
 one. Such was the well-known investigation of 
 the celebrated English surgeon, Dr. William 
 Hunter, who carried his observations through two 
 thousand consecutive caxes of childbirth at a lying- 
 in hospital to which he was attached. In every one 
 of these, as soon as the woman was delivered, he 
 7
 
 74 PA.RTUBITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 asked if she had been disappointed of anything 
 she had longed for, and if so, what it w ; also, if 
 ghe had been suddenly shocked or surprised in any 
 way, and how ; or frightened by any unsightly or 
 horrid object, and what The answer in each case 
 he regularly noted down, and he then inspected 
 the child ; and he never in any single instance met 
 with a coincidence. He found blemishes where no 
 cause was acknowledged, and found none where 
 some cause was given ; but absolutely nothing to 
 support the belief. 
 
 Dr. Dewees, who quoted Dr. Hunter's experi- 
 ments and other authorities, states his conclusion 
 thus : 
 
 " Nor do we believe in the influence of the " imag- 
 ination" upon either the form, color, or future 
 destiny of the child, however powerfully this 
 faculty may have been exerted during gestation. 
 We entirely reject all the reasoning, as well as the 
 appeals to facts supposed to be illustrative of this 
 wonderful influence. We have, ever since our 
 commencement in business, been attentive to this 
 subject, and we can most conscientiously declare we 
 have 'never, in a single instance, had reason to 
 believe the imagination had exerted the slightest 
 control, though contrary to our early belief upon 
 (his subject" 
 
 It is comfortable, where there is evidence on both 
 Bides, to find that the most agreeable dextrine is at
 
 THE MIND DURING GESTATION. 7B 
 
 any rate well enough supported to justify a belief 
 in it by anybody \s ho prefers it. 
 
 The most extreme views thus far put forth 
 respecting the mental perversions resulting from 
 pregnancy are those of Dr. Storer, in his Reflex, 
 Insanity in Women. In this work Dr. Storer 
 shosvs the well-known, intimate, and powerfully 
 sympathetic connection between the uterus and its 
 associated organs, and the brain ; and he proceeds 
 to arrange many of the phenomena of pregnancy in 
 a manner admitting of a scale of intensity or 
 importance, from headache, irritability, low spirits, 
 and difficulty of self-control, through such phe- 
 nomena as a morbidly extravagant love of pets, 
 longings, etc., up to such manifestations as an 
 irresistible impulse to steal (kleptomania), and 
 even to actual temporary insanity; and he even 
 argues that women ought not to be punished for 
 crimes- committed during pregnancy. This may 
 be just, but if so, it is equally unavoidable that 
 women during pregnancy must be so kept that 
 they cannot commit crimes. 
 
 Dr. Storer's discussion is even painfully inter- 
 esting, though the limitations which would be 
 applied by a full handling of the question would 
 remove the first unqualified impression of terror ; 
 fcr to argue that insanity, or at least irresistible 
 immoral impulse, is a condition of pregnancy, is 
 Uttla better than arguing that death is a condition
 
 76 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 of it No such consequences ensue except i; 
 exceptional cases; and those where real and im- 
 portant danger exists are still fewer. 
 
 Yet tin undoubted existence of such extreme 
 cases, notwithstanding their fewness, lends great 
 force to the views expressed in this chapter upon 
 the existence of a disturbed condition of the mind, 
 or at least of a liability to such disturbance, during 
 gestation, and to the suggestions made for con- 
 trolling such disturbance. 
 
 To recapitulate and complete the suggestions of 
 this chapter : 
 
 Be even-tempered and good-natured ; remember 
 that the transfer of your habitual states of mind 
 or body to your child is substantially certain. 
 
 Avoid horrid and uncomfortable sights and 
 stories. It does no harm to avoid them, and it 
 avoids discomfort if not danger. If they are 
 encountered, however, remember that they have 
 millions of times been encountered without harm; 
 that there is not the least certainty of their doing 
 harm ; that there is much more evidence, indeed, 
 that they cannot do harm than that they can. 
 
 Have whatever you can get that is harmless, 
 that you want. If it is harmful, go without it; 
 if you cannot get it, io the same, and think of 
 something else. 
 
 Understand that your unreasonable fancies and 
 impulses are temporary; superficial, so to speak,
 
 1'HE ItlNt DURING GESTATION. 7'T 
 
 and not real ; and use the same good sense and 
 self-control about them that you should do in 
 managing your temper and impulses at all times. 
 It is a received truth that even actual lunatics are 
 capable of a great degree of self-control, and that 
 its exercise is an important element in their cure. 
 Much more will it be found efficient in the govern- 
 ment of such mental irregularities as arise from 
 a condition which is in its own nature perfectly 
 natural and perfectly healthful. 
 
 Enlist the sympathy and aid of your husband, 
 of your physician, and of such other close and con- 
 fidential friends as you may possess. 
 
 Let your love for your own baby reinforce your 
 resolution to adhere to such a line of behavior as 
 is best. 
 
 Lastly, reflect that philosophy may teach you 
 that it is useless and foolish to allow yourself 
 to torment yourself over whatever you find you 
 cannot help; that not only selfishness, but jus- 
 tice and decency and love call on you to act as 
 is sensible and right, for your own sake, for 
 the sake of your husband and your friends, 
 and for the sake of your own baby ; and if yoii 
 ar? so happy as to possess a living religious faith, 
 use that. It is given you for the express pur- 
 pose of helping out your lower motives whero 
 they are feeble, and where they disappear, of 
 1*
 
 78 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 affording you a clear and practicable path foi 
 thought and action. 
 
 Make a proper use of that set of motives, and 
 no place is left for the mental disturbances of 
 pregnancy to do any great harm.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE AILMENTS OE PREGNANCY. 
 
 THOSE ailments to which pregnant women are 
 liable are, most of them, inconveniences rather than 
 diseases, although they may sometimes be aggra- 
 vated to a degree of real danger. Arising as they 
 do from the temporary physical condition of the 
 organism, what they require is not such medical 
 treatment as may be needed for a true disease, but 
 rather a general hygienic regimen ; and for a 
 similar reason, while on one hand it may not be 
 possible to remove them entirely, yet on the other 
 they can almost always be greatly alleviated. 
 
 In general, therefore, it may be first observed 
 that such a way of living as shall maintain and 
 elevate the standard of general physical and mental 
 health will of course increase the power of resist- 
 ing and surmounting all ailments whatever. 
 Accordingly, the two chief instrumentalities toward 
 that end which are urged in this book, namely, 
 the judicious use of baths, and the fruit diet 
 system, may be confidently relied upon to greatly 
 diminish the discomforts incident to the period of 
 pregnancy. 
 
 It, may, however, be useful to briefly enumerate
 
 80 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 the difficulties, not which every pregnant woman 
 must have, by any means, but one or more of 
 which different women are liable to experience. 
 What has been before recommended on genera] 
 principles in the previous chapters is here implied 
 of course. The suggestions in this chapter are 
 not intended to furnish a substitute for the advice 
 of a physician, but to give directions for cases that 
 do not require his attendance. As is repeatedly 
 remarked under the various heads that follow, he 
 should be called in promptly where the case is at 
 all serious ; and, under the peculiar circumstance? 
 of pregnancy, it is probably good sense to call him 
 too often rather than too seldom. By a good un- 
 derstanding with your physician you can almost 
 always induce him to prescribe for you only hy- 
 gienic remedies rather than poisonous drugs. There 
 are multitudes of doctors who would give very few 
 medicines did not their patients demand them. 
 
 Sickness at the stomach at rising in the morning 
 or at eating. This is usually irost annoying in 
 the first months of pregnancy. After quickening, 
 it usually disappears or diminishes. Sometimes it 
 only happens during the latter months, or reap- 
 pears at that time, and then continues until 
 delivery or a few days before it. In this last case, 
 viz., of the latter months, it will be best to con- 
 sult a physician if there be vc 'iting to such an 
 extent as to be troublesome.
 
 THE AILMENTS OF PREGNANCY. 81 
 
 In the first case, much is to be expected from 
 the general regimen herein prescribed for bodj 
 and mind. In case of nausea on getting out of 
 bed, the evil may sometimes be cheated by lying 
 comfortably in bed while you eat breakfast. Swal- 
 lowing a very little pounded ice will sometimes 
 give relief, and so will a cold wet compress over 
 the stomach. If these fail, try hot fomentations 
 over the same region, continued for ten or fifteen 
 minutes, and to be followed by wearing a wet 
 girdle. 
 
 If any particular kind of food is " longed" for, 
 it is more likely to be retained. So is an unex- 
 pected article of food. Where the retention of 
 food is particularly difficult, some concentrated 
 form of nourishment may be used, as beef tea, 
 calf's foot jelly, etc., as its small bulk is less liable 
 to excite the irritability of the stomach. 
 
 There is much reason for believing that this 
 " morning-sickness" is not a necessary accompani- 
 ment of healthful pregnancy, but due, in great 
 measure at least, to such conditions of modern 
 civilized life as may be effectively varied in .such 
 a way as to escape it. If, however, the decisive 
 change of regimen which would happen to most 
 women by the adoption of the fruit diet and bath 
 method be not adopted, the nausea must be put 
 np with. 
 
 fterattf/cd appetite. " Longings" have been dis-
 
 82 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIK. 
 
 ensued. Where the appetite fails, let the patient 
 go without eating for a little while, say for two or 
 three meals. If, however, the strength begins to 
 go. try the offering of some unexpected delicacy ; 
 or give small quantities of nourishing food, as di- 
 rected in case of nausea. 
 
 Flatulence and colic. Eat in small quantities 
 and often, instead of rarely and largely ; and eat 
 nothing for three or four hours before bedtime. 
 Chew thoroughly. These directions are because 
 these ailments usually come from bad digestion. 
 Sometimes drinking a tumbler of warm water will 
 bring on vomiting and relief from wind ; if in the 
 Jower bowels, an injection of warm water may 
 relieve. 
 
 Heartburn. To be prevented by right living. 
 In particular, let magnesia, chalk, or other alkalies 
 be avoided, and try a day's fasting, and another 
 day's very small eating. A very severe heartburn 
 will often be relieved by drinking rapidly several 
 tumblers of blood-warm soft water, so as to vomit 
 easily. Those, however, who adopt a proper regi- 
 men are not likely to have heartburn. 
 
 Constipation. For this common and trouble- 
 Home disorder of pregnancy, the fruit diet and 
 healthy exercise are the best preventives. Injec- 
 tions of tepid water will often facilitate evacuation. 
 A physician should always be consulted before the 
 case becomes serious. The fruit diet and oxer-
 
 THE ULMENTS OF PREGNANCY. 83 
 
 Rising regimen may sometimes be reinfc/ccd by 
 drinking a glass of water just before going to 
 bed, or by eating an orange before breakfast. This 
 difficulty is much more easily prevented than 
 cured ; and it is the more indispensable to pro- 
 vide against it, since it tends directly and power- 
 fully to bring on a train of painful and dangerous 
 consequences, resulting in headache, palpitation, 
 and perhaps piles, inflammation of the bowels, and 
 even miscarriage. 
 
 Diarrhoea. This may be a result of constipa- 
 tion, the watery discharge being secreted by the 
 lining of the bowels in the effort to discharge the 
 compacted waste matter. The tepid sitz-bath, 
 with injections of small quantities of cool water, 
 together with lying quietly on the back, will 
 generally remove the difficulty. This, with a 
 proper regimen, will in all probability either pre- 
 vent it or cure it. Care should be taken to keep 
 the abdomen warm by proper clothing. 
 
 Piles. For cases of significance consult a physi- 
 cian. As with constipation, so with piles, its fre- 
 quent result ; fruu diet, exercise, and sitz-bath regi- 
 men will do much to prevent the trouble. Frequent 
 local applications of a cold compress, and even of 
 ice, and tepid water injections, are of great service. 
 Walking or standing aggravate this complaint; 
 Ijing down alleviates it. Dr. Shew says, " There 
 id nothing in the world that will produce <?o great
 
 84 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 relief in piles as fasting. If the fit is severe, Irve 
 a whole day, or even two, if necessary, upon pure, 
 soft cold water alone. Give then very lightly of 
 vegetable food." 
 
 Toothache. There is a sort of proverb that a 
 woman loses one tooth every time she has a child. 
 Neuralgic toothache during pregnancy is, at any 
 rate, extremely common, and often has to be en- 
 dured. It is generally thought not best to have 
 teeth extracted during pregnancy, as the shock to 
 the nervous system has sometimes caused miscar- 
 riage. To wash out the mouth morning and 
 night with cold or lukewarm water and salt is 
 often of use. If the teeth are decayed, consult a 
 good dentist in the early stages of pregnancy, and 
 have the offending teeth properly dressed. Good 
 dentists, in the present state of the science, ex- 
 tract very few teeth, but save them. 
 
 Salivation. Excessive secretion of the saliva 
 has usually been reckoned substantially incurable. 
 Fasting, cold water treatment, exercise, and fruit 
 diet may be relied upon to prevent, cure, or alle- 
 viate it, where this is possible, as it frequently is. 
 
 Headache. This is, perhaps, almost as common 
 in cases of pregnancy as " morning sickness." It 
 may be from determination of blood to the head, 
 from constipation or indigestion, constitutional 
 " sick headache," from neuralgia, from a cold, from 
 rheumatism. Correct living will prevent much
 
 TJIK AILMENTS OF I'K ICGNANCY. 86 
 
 headache trouble ; and where this does not answer 
 the purpose, rubbing and making magnetic passes 
 over the head by the hand of some healthy mag- 
 netic person will often prove of great service. 
 
 Jaundice. See the doctor. 
 
 "Liver spots." These, on the face, must prob- 
 ably be endured, as no trustworthy way of driving 
 them off is known. 
 
 Itching. A wash, or injection, of castile soap 
 and water, of borax and water, or of water contain- 
 ing aromatic spirits of ammonia at two teaspoonfuls 
 to a tumbler, or of water containing say fifteen 
 grains of benzoic acid to half a pint, will com- 
 monly be effective. Solicitous cleanliness is the 
 first requisite, and this, with no other treatment 
 except cold hip-baths, and if necessary even ice, 
 would probably answer the purpose. 
 
 Pain in the right side. This is liable to occur 
 from about tbe fifth to the eighth month, and is 
 attributed to the pressure of the enlarging womb 
 upon the liver. Proper living is most likely to 
 alleviate it. Wearing a wet girdle in daytime or a 
 wet compress at night, sitz-baths, and friction 
 with the wet hand, may also be tried. If the pain 
 is severe a mustard poultice may be used. Exercise 
 should be carefully moderated if found to increase 
 the pain. If there is fever and inflammation with 
 it, consult a physician. It is usually not dangerous, 
 but uncomfortable only. 
 8
 
 86 pAtttfimmoN WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 of the heart. To be prevented by 
 healthj living and calm good humor. Lying 
 down \viil often gradually relieve it, so will a 
 compress v^t witn water as hot as can be borne 
 placed ovo* ihe heart and renewed as often as it 
 jets cool. 
 
 Fainting Most hkely to be caused by "quick- 
 *ning," or el^ by tight dress, bad air, over-exertion, 
 (*T other unhealthy living. It is not often dan- 
 gerous. Lay the patient in an easy posture, the 
 head rather low than high, and where cool air 
 may blow across the face; loosen the dress if 
 tight ; sprinkle cold water on the face and hands. 
 
 Sleeplessness. Most likely to be caused b}' incor- 
 rect living, and to be prevented and cured by the 
 opposite. A glass or two of cold water drunk 
 deliberately at going to bed often helps one go 
 to sleep; so does bathing the face and hands 
 and the feet in cold water. A short nap in the 
 latter part of the forenoon can sometimes be had, 
 and is of use. Such a nap ought not to be too long, 
 or it leaves a heavy feeling; it should be sought 
 with the mind in a calm state, in a well-venti- 
 lated though darkened room, and with the 
 clothing removed, as at night. A similar nap in 
 the afternoon is not so good, but is better than 
 nothing. The tepid sitz-bath on goiug to bed 
 will often produce sleep, and eo will gentle per- 
 cussion given by an attendant with the palms of
 
 THE AILMENTS OF PREGNANCY. 87 
 
 the hand over the back for a few minutes on 
 retiring. To secure sound sleep do not read, write, 
 or ssverely tax the mind in the evening. 
 
 Abortion. This has been discussed, as far as 
 epace permitted, in Chapter II. 
 
 Swelled feet and hands. Correct living, wash- 
 ing with cold water, and frequent lying down, 
 are palliatives for this difficulty. It is not 
 dangerous, and it usually ceases with childbirth. 
 If there are symptoms of its spreading to the 
 whole system, consult a physician. Friction upon 
 the limbs, applied upward, while they are lifted 
 upon a chair or couch, is sometimes of use, and 
 the skin may be rubbed with sweet-oil or glycerine 
 if it becomes painfully distended. Relief has been 
 given by the use of a roller or broad bandage round 
 the limbs affected. 
 
 Swelling or pain in the breast. See that the 
 dress is loose so as to allow the natural enlarge- 
 ment of the bosom. Wear a wet bandage ; if there 
 be pain of a spasmodic kind foment with warm 
 water. 
 
 Cramps. If in the legs, to rise and walk about 
 will often quickly remove them. Friction with 
 the hand is of use. 
 
 Varicose veins. Wear a laced or elastic stock* 
 ing. If this is not to be had, apply carefully and 
 snugly a roller or broad bandage of cotton cloth, 
 from the toes upward, swathing and compressing
 
 88 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 the leg to a point above the distended veins. Keep 
 the legs horizontal as much as possible. Cold 
 water, wet bandages, and hand friction miy !: 
 tried. 
 
 Rigidity of the skin. This sometimes occasions 
 a good deal of distress in the region of the abdomen. 
 Kubbing with-sweet oil or glycerine is useful. If 
 the skin over the abdomen is made tough and 
 healthy by proper gentle friction before pregnancy 
 has far advanced, most of the suffering will be 
 avoided. 
 
 Mental disturbances. These include nervous 
 irritability, despondency, hysteric, and, in rare and 
 extreme cases, loss of mental balance, and even 
 actual temporary insanity. Enough has been said 
 on these subjects in Chapter VIII. It is believed 
 that the suggestions there given afford satisfac- 
 tory means of preventing any avoidable trouble 
 from this source. 
 
 Leucorrhcea. Frequent washings, and injections 
 of blood- warm suds of castile soap are useful. 
 Allay itching by washing with water in which one 
 grain of carbolic acid to an ounce of water has 
 been dissolved, 
 
 Miscarriage. See Chapter II. on this subject. 
 
 False pains, neuralgic and other pains. Pains 
 somewhat like labor-pains sometimes occur during 
 the last one or two months of pregnancy. They 
 may be distinguished from the real ones, however,
 
 THE AILMENTS OF PREGNANCY. 89 
 
 t,f laying the hand on the abdomen. In the false 
 pain, the womb does not contract and grow hard 
 under the hand. 
 
 Similar pains may occur from rheumatism of 
 the womb. This may be known by the excessive 
 sensitiveness of the abdomen, which becomes 
 unable to endure the least pressure of the hand, 
 or even the weight of the clothes. Consult a phy- 
 sician in this case. A silk wrapper next the body 
 is often a great relief. 
 
 Various temporary or wandering pains are often 
 felt in the back, abdomen, or legs. These are the 
 result of nervous irritability, or perhaps of colic, 
 and are only troublesome, not dangerous. 
 
 Womb displacements. For such occurrences, and 
 in case of the discharge known as " false waters," 
 be quiet, and send for your physician. 
 
 Paralysis, amanrosis, deafness. Pregnant wo- 
 men are sometimes seized with partial paralysis, 
 with amaurosis, or loss of sight from paralytic 
 affection of the optic nerve, and with deafness of a 
 similar kind. As the physician -will say, they are 
 temporary affections, and may be expected to dis- 
 appear after childbirth. 
 
 Convulsions. Call your physiciac. In the mean 
 time, the application of cold water to the head, and 
 of hot water to the legs, is all that need be tried. 
 
 Mechanical inconveniences. Th<" inconvenience 
 wising from the enlargement of the 
 8*
 
 90 PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN 
 
 region may sometimes be eased to some extent by 
 wearing a broad belt with an adjustable lacing 
 behind. It should be next the skin, and taken off 
 at night. 
 
 Retention or incontinence of urine will be 
 guarded against as far as possible by a correct way 
 of living. Consult a physician at once, especially 
 in case of retention, which quickly becomes dan- 
 gerous. Great care should be taken to secure the 
 natural evacuations regularly, and at any otter 
 rime when the desire is felt
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ANESTHETICS ; FEMALE PHYSICIAN'S. 
 
 ON the question of preventing the pains of 
 childbirth by the administration of anaesthetics, 
 there is a conflict of evidence, but, it is believed, 
 with a great preponderance in favor of the practice 
 where the pain is likely to do more harm to the 
 nervous system than the ansesthetic could possi- 
 bly do. In cases where the patient is robust, the 
 labor likely to be short, and the suffering light, 
 it is of course advisable to avoid the use of anaes- 
 thetics. 
 
 The chief objection urged is in substance that 
 the effect of chloroform (the only anaesthetic which 
 is meant in this chapter; as the others, mixtures 
 of chloroform with ether or other substances, and 
 also nitrous oxide, hydrate of chloral, etc., are not 
 recommended in the present state of medical 
 experience of them) is to so modify the constitu 
 ents of the blood as to impede recovery and increase 
 the liability to various bad sequences of labor. A 
 theological objection has been made, viz., that 
 God meant childbirth to be painful, and that it ia 
 wicked to try to ease it. To this it is sufficient to
 
 92 PAETUEITTON WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 reply that no woman is known to have made this 
 objection, and that any man who chooses to under- 
 go the agony that has heretofore too often accom- 
 panied childbirth without anaesthetics, should be 
 made welcome to do so. 
 
 In the mean while, all that it is necessary to 
 remark here is, that Sir James Y. Simpson, the 
 celebrated Edinburgh surgeon who discovered the 
 anaesthetic use of chloroform, and many other 
 eminent surgeons after him, have used it literally 
 in hundreds of thousands of cases of surgical 
 operations and childbirth, with at least as little 
 Hurm as for instance attends a similar number of 
 cases of travelling by railroad and steamboat. A 
 few quotations from medical authorities will serve 
 to show what conclusions physicians come to from 
 their own experience and observation of the use 
 of chloroform. 
 
 As regards the safety of its administration in 
 surgical cases, the following remarks by Dr. J. A. 
 Otis embody statistics of immense significance : 
 
 " You know well the history of the use of chlo- 
 roform in the Crimean and Italian campaigns, 
 where it was employed without a single disaster ; 
 and I am informed by Langenbeck and Stromeyer 
 that a similar result attended the seven weeks' 
 Austro-Prussian war. In our own unhappy strug- 
 gle chloroform was administered in more than one 
 hundred and twenty thousand cases, and I air
 
 ANAESTHETICS; FEMAIE PHYSICIANS. 93 
 
 unable to learn of more than eight cases in which 
 a fatal result can be fairly traceable to its use." 
 
 Dr. Tilt says, of the use of chloroform in 
 labor : 
 
 " In our own time the sting 1 as been taken from 
 the curse (of pain) by the discovery of chloroform, 
 for which one of our greatest men will ever rank 
 next to, if not before, the discoverer of vaccina- 
 tion." 
 
 Dr. W. P. Johnston says, in speaking of Sir J. Y. 
 Simpson : 
 
 " Throughout the length and breadth of this 
 great American Union there is not a single well- 
 educated physician, I will venture to assert, who 
 is not prepared to unite with me in. the declaration 
 that this branch (obstetrics) of the healing art is 
 immensely indebted to thai great discoverer of the 
 anaesthetic properties of chloroform, for the evi- 
 dence he afforded of its safety and beneficial effects 
 in many cases of natural labor, but especially for 
 its inestimable value in obstetrical operations." 
 
 Dr. H. R. Storer, until he relinquished midwifery 
 practice, " made it his rule always to administer 
 chloroform to parturient patients, and this no 
 matter whether the labor was a rapid one or no or 
 whether the patient had or had not organic disease 
 of the heart or lungs; believing, as he did, that 
 not only was it the physician's duty to relieve 
 pain, here ordinarily so exquisite, and to lessen thf
 
 94 PARTUJLUT10JS WITHOUT PAIN. 
 
 risk to both mother and child, as was done by the 
 relaxation of voluntary muscles effected by the 
 anaesthetic, but that for certain manifest reasons 
 chloroform was preferable for obstetric use to 
 ether." 
 
 Dr. Beatty, in his Contributions to Medicine and 
 Midwifery, says : 
 
 " Its employment, when properly conducted" (Dr., 
 Beatty's italics), "is not attended with any inju- 
 rious effects upon either mother or child. I have 
 never seen any unpleasant result from it, and I 
 believe that out of the many thousand cases in 
 which this agent has been employed in parturition, 
 not a single case of death has occurred from its 
 use." 
 
 In a subsequent paper, two years afterward, Dr. 
 B. said, referring to the above statement : 
 
 " Since that time I have continued to use chloro- 
 form very extensively, and with the happiest results. 
 I have given it to every patient who desired to have 
 it, unless I saw some good reason to refuse. I have 
 not pressed it upon any, and rejoice, at the end of 
 two years additional experience, to be able to state 
 that in all cases its use has been productive of the 
 greatest relief and happiness, and that in no case 
 has anything unpleasant occurred to either mother 
 or child during its administration, or subsequent 
 to delivery. ... It will be easily imagined that 
 my confidence tn the power of the agent hat
 
 ANESTHETICS ; FEMALE PHYSICIANS. 9fl 
 
 increased with my experience, and I now ieel 
 distressed when obliged to witness the sufferings 
 of a patient, prolonged, perhaps, in a first case for 
 hours, when I have the power to alleviate hei 
 agony, and (without for a moment interfering with 
 her consciousness) to render her labor a ' pleasure,' 
 ' happiness,' or ' heaven,' phrases which have 
 been frequently made use of to me by patients ta 
 whom chloroform has been administered." 
 
 The following details, given by Dr. Beatty of a 
 case where the patient was during four honra 
 under the influence of chloroform, will be found 
 interesting : 
 
 "The nurse (the delivery being accomplished) 
 was sitting at the fire with the infant in her arms, 
 without the mother being in the slightest degree 
 conscious of what had taken place ; and in about 
 five minutes afterward the lady turned around in 
 bed and said to me, ' Do you think it will be soon 
 over ?' I replied, ' Don't you know that the child 
 is born ?' and I will never forget the expression 
 of her countenance when she said, 'Now, don't 
 deceive me, but tell me truly, shall I soon be 
 well?' In short, it was not until the child was 
 placed in the bed with her thirt she could o? 
 made to believe that her delivery had been accom- 
 plished, and she then declared most solemnly that 
 she had not the slightest idea till that moment 
 
 what had taken place."
 
 00 PARTURITION \\ITIIOUT PAIN. 
 
 It is true that thorough precautions must be 
 employed in the use of this medical agent. Dr. 
 Beatty insists emphatically upon the necessity of 
 using a pure article, of its being taken upon an 
 empty stomach, and in a horizontal attitude. He 
 doubtless thought it superfluous to add what ia 
 the chief requisite of all for non-professional per- 
 sons it should never be taken except when a 
 thoroughly competent physician superintends the 
 ivhole administration and all the effects of it. 
 
 Lastly, the fruit diet and the accompanying 
 regimen recommended in this book will be found 
 in most cases to do away with the necessity of any 
 anaesthetic, by the prevention of the pain. 
 
 As regards the employment of female physi- 
 cians, it is apprehended that few will deny that, 
 other things being equal, a female physician should 
 deal with female patients. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the introduction of 
 the employment of professional obstetric surgeons 
 instead of uneducated midwives, between two and 
 three centuries ago, was a great advance in the 
 medical art. But the employment of skilled female 
 assistance is another great advance ; and reason and 
 public opinion both point toward the conclusion 
 here stated. Only, it should b-3 remembered, othe* 
 things should be equal. The female physician 
 should be as thoroughly trained, as skillful, and aa 
 competent, as the male physician. That being the
 
 ANAESTHETICS ,' FEMALE PHYSICIANS. G'i 
 
 ease, it is impossible not to perceive how immense 
 a relief to the feelings it must be and therefore to 
 the physical condition to be able to depend upon a 
 person of the patient's own sex.
 
 SUMM ART. 
 
 PAIKLESS parturition may be secured by attention 
 to the following points during pregnancy (besides 
 correct previous bringing up, moral, mental, and 
 physical) : 
 
 Moderate healthful exercise, and avoidance of 
 shocks, fatigue, and over-exertion. 
 
 Comfortable or at least quiet and patient mental 
 condition, avoiding all bad tempers. 
 
 Amusement and agreeable occupation as far as 
 possible. 
 
 Judicious use of bathing, particularly of the 
 sitz-bath. 
 
 The Fruit Diet, and avoidance of unsuitable food, 
 and of alcoholic, narcotic, and other stimulants. 
 
 Watchfulness and prompt treatment of the 
 various ailments of the situation, should they 
 appear. 
 
 Kindness and indulgence by the patient's hus- 
 band and friends. 
 
 The use of chloroform, if required, at delivery ; 
 but only if administered and watched by a profes- 
 sional attendant.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE HUSBAND'S DUTY. It is very necessai) 
 that the wife, who is pregnant, should have the co 
 operation and sympathy of her husband in carry 
 ing out all the details of the mode of life laid down 
 in this book. Few women are strong enough to 
 go alone through the months and years of child- 
 bearing without the moral help of him on whom 
 she looks for support. Indeed, it will often fall tc 
 the husband to decide for the wife what course it is 
 best to pursue. He should see that she has such 
 books to read as will be of service to her; should 
 often read them to her. He should see that she is 
 properly informed on all those topics that are 
 essential to her well-being and that of the child ; 
 that proper food is provided; that means for 
 bathing, recreation, etc., are not wanting; that care 
 and perplexity are not bearing her down. The 
 wise stock-breeder tenderly looks after the wants 
 of pregnant animals. The wise man should not do 
 less for the wife, whom he has sacredly promised lo 
 love and protect. He ought rather to do for b er a 
 great deal more.
 
 100 APPENDIX. 
 
 SMALL FAMILIES. It is the fashion of tlnee 
 who marry nowadays to have few children often 
 none. Of course this is a matter which married 
 people must decide for themselves. As was stated 
 in an early chapter, sometimes this policy is the 
 wisest that can be pursued. Diseased people, who 
 are likely to beget only sickly offspring, may follow 
 this course, and so may thieves, rascals, vagabonds, 
 insane and drunken persons, and all those who are 
 likely to bring into the world beings that ought 
 not to be here. But why so many well-to-do folks 
 should pursue a policy adapted only to paupers and 
 criminals, is not so easy to explain. Why marry at 
 all if not to found a family that shall live to bless 
 and make glad the earth after father and mother 
 are gone ? It is not wise to rear too many chil- 
 dren, nor is it wise to have too few. Properly 
 brought up, they will make home a delight and 
 parents happy. 
 
 Galton, in his great work on hereditary genius, 
 observes that " The time may hereafter arrive, in 
 far distant years, when the population of the earth 
 shall be kept as strictly within bounds of number 
 and suitability of race, as the sheep of a well-ordered 
 moor, or the plants in an orchard-house; in the 
 mean time, let us do what we c*n to encourage the 
 multiplication of the races best fitted to invent and 
 conform to a high and generous civilization, and 
 not, out of a mistaken instinct of giving support to
 
 APPEXDIX. 101 
 
 the weak, prevent the incoming of strong and 
 hearty individuals." 
 
 BEST AGE FOR PROCREATION. The best age 
 for begetting children are those years in which 
 there is the highest vigor and maturity of body and 
 mind. These are, for man, from twenty-five to 
 forty or forty-five, and for woman from twenty to 
 forty. Even healthy women lose the power of 
 procreation between forty and forty-five. Men who 
 take proper care of their bodies retain it much 
 longer, though dissipated men become impotent 
 very early in life. There are thousands of men who 
 are impotent at forty. It is a shame to them that 
 it is so, but nature is inexorable in her laws, and 
 punishes all her children for disobeying them. 
 
 SHALL SICKLY PEOPLE RAISE CHILDREN? 
 The question whether sickly people should marry 
 and propagate their kind, is briefly alluded to in 
 an early chapter of this work. Where father and 
 mother are both consumptive, the chances are that 
 the children will inherit physical weakness, which 
 will result in the same disease unless great pains is 
 taken to give them a good physical education, and 
 even then the probabilities are that they will find 
 life a burden hardly worth having. Where one 
 parent is consumptive and the other vigorous, the 
 chances are just half as great. If there is a scrofu
 
 102 APPENDIX. 
 
 lous or consumptive taint in the ulood. oeware i 
 Sickly children are no comfort to their parents, no 
 real blessing. If such people marry, they had bet- 
 ter, iu most cases, avoid parentage. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF PHYSIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION. 
 Before two persons " fall in love" with each other 
 they should try and decide if the union is the best 
 one by which to produce healthy, well-bred off- 
 spring. People should never marry without love ; 
 but all who love should not marry. The object of 
 marriage is not love, but to carry out the family 
 relation, especially to rear and educate children, 
 and while love is absolutely essential to a true 
 marriage, so also is physiological adaptation. There 
 are those who think if two persons love each other 
 they are justified in marrying, but no marriage is a 
 good one that takes this alone into account 
 
 Mr. Darwin, in his great work on The Descent 
 of Man, says, "Man scans with scrupulous care the 
 character and pedigree of his horses, cattle, and 
 dags before he matches them ; but when it cornea 
 to his own marriage, he rarely or never takes such 
 care. He is impelled by nearly the same motives 
 as are the lower animals when left to their own 
 free choice, though he is in so far superior to them 
 that he highly values mental charms and virtues. 
 On the other hand, he is strongly attracted by 
 mere wealth or rank- Yet he might by selection
 
 103 
 
 do something not only for the bodily constitution 
 and frame of his offspring, but for their intel 
 lectual and moral qualities. Both sexes ought to 
 refrain from marriage if in any marked deg/ee infe- 
 rior in body or mind ; but such hopes are Utopian, 
 and will never even be partially realized until the 
 laws of inheritance are thoroughly known. All do 
 good service who aid toward this end. When tin 
 principles of breeding and of inheritance are bettei 
 understood, we shall not hear ignorant members of 
 our legislature rejecting with scorn a plan for ascer- 
 taining by an easy method whether or not consan- 
 guineous marriages are injurious to man. 
 
 " The advancement of the welfare of mankind is 
 a most intricate problem : all ought to refrain from 
 marriage who cannot avoid abject poverty for their 
 children ; for poverty is not only a great evil, but 
 tends to its own increase by leading to recklessness 
 in marriage. On the other hand, as Mr. Galton 
 has remarked, if the prudent avoid marriage, while 
 the reckless marry, the inferior members will tend 
 to supplant the better members of society. Man, 
 like every other animal, has no doubt advanced to 
 his present high condition through a struggle for 
 existence consequent on his rapid multiplication ; 
 and if he is to advance still higher he must remain 
 subject to a severe struggle. Otherwise, he would 
 Boon sink into indolence, and the more highly- 
 gifted men would not be more successful in th<
 
 104 APPENDIX. 
 
 battle of life than the less-gifted. Hence cur natn 
 ral rate of increase, though leading to many and 
 obvious evils, must not be greatly diminished by 
 any means. There should be open competition for 
 all men ; and the most able should not be pre- 
 vented by laws or customs from succeeding best an-1 
 rearing the largest number of offspring." 
 
 CELIBACY. The following paragraph from Mr 
 Galton, is very significant, and though the sam? 
 policy is not likely to be again repeated, in thd 
 same way, it may be in other forms which will be 
 quite as unfortunate. He says, " The long period of 
 the dark ages under which Europe has lain, is due, 1 
 believe, in a very considerable degree to the celib 
 acy enjoined by religious orders on their votaries 
 Whenever a man or woman was possessed of a gen 
 tie nature, that fitted him or her to deeds of charity, 
 to meditation, to literature, or to art, the social 
 condition of the time was such that they had no 
 refuge elsewhere than in the bosom of the Church 
 But the Church chose to preach and exact celibacy 
 The consequence was, that these gentle natures had 
 no continuance, and thus, by a policy so singularly 
 unwise and suicidal that I am hardly able to speak 
 of it without impatience, the Church (Catholic) 
 brutalized the breed of our forefathers. She prac 
 tised the arts which breeders would use who aimed 
 at creating ferocious, currish, and stupid natures
 
 APPEXDIX. 105 
 
 No wonder that club-law prevraled for centuries 
 over Europe. The wonder rather is, that good 
 enough remained in the veins of Europeans to ena- 
 ble their race to rise to its present very moderate 
 level of natural morality." 
 
 TOBACCO AXD ALCOHOL. The effects of tobaccc 
 on offspring are now known to be serious. Of 
 course those who use but little of it may not see 
 the direful consequences in their children, but it 
 hardly needs the eye of a physiologist to trace many 
 serious cases of nervous disorders, in eluding idiocy, 
 to the direct excessive use of this loathsome and 
 disgusting weed. Dr. Pidduck, a London surgeon 
 of extensive observation, says, "In no instance is 
 the sin of the father more directly visited on the 
 children than in tobacco-using. It produces in the 
 offspring an enervated and unsound constitution, 
 deformities, and often an early death." The writer 
 of these lines has seen the most fearful effects 
 produced upon children begotton by those whose 
 nervous systems had been shattered by its use. A 
 potent cause of impotency is found in the use of 
 tobacco. Let women beware how they mate them- 
 selves with those addicted either to smoking or 
 chewing, Not less disastrous is the use of alcoholic 
 bsverages. Dr. Napheys says, " Not only does the 
 abuse of alcoholic beverages shorten virility, but it 
 transmits toe same tendency to the male descend- 
 5*
 
 100 APPENDIX. 
 
 ants, even when no intemperance can be charged, 
 yet the peculiarly American habit of taking strong 
 liquors on an empty stomach is most destructive to 
 nervous force, and most certain to prevent healthy 
 children." Darwm, than whom there are few 
 higher authorities, tells us that intemperance, per- 
 sisted in for a few generations by any family, ia 
 likely to lead to its extinction. Nature does not 
 find it profitable to keep them on the earth, thej 
 sannot contend with the more temperate in the 
 struggle for existence. Morel mentions a family 
 where the father was a, drunkard, the son inherited 
 his father's habits, the grandson had suicidal tend- 
 encies, and the great-grandson, the last of the 
 race, was stupid and idiotic. 
 
 DETERMINING THE SEX OF CHILDREN. There 
 are many persons who would give a great deal to 
 know the law for determining the sex of offspring 
 at will, and there are many respectable physiolo- 
 gists who, no doubt, honestly believe that they have 
 discovered this law. Surely effort enough has been 
 made in this field of inquiry, but with what suc- 
 cess? The theory now more generally accepted 
 than any other is that of Prof. Thury, of the Acad- 
 emy, Geneva, and his experiments seem to have 
 b^en perfectly satisfactory. His theory is, that if 
 impregnation takes place immediately or very soon 
 after menstruation, the child will be a female ; but
 
 APPENDIX. 107 
 
 if impregnation does not take place unti? some 
 days after, the child will be a male. Darwin, hoM 
 ever, states in his latest works that recent experi- 
 ments discountenance Thnry's theory as incorrect. 
 If this be true, our men of science will turn theii 
 attention in other directions to discover this law. 
 Certain it is, that every false theory disproved, by 
 negation at least, brings us one nearer the true one. 
 
 FATHER'S vs. MOTHER'S INFLUENCE. It has been 
 a question of much interest and no little impor- 
 tance, to decide whether the father or mother 
 influences the character of the offspring most 
 Many have contended that the mother's influence 
 by far exceeds the father's, for the reason that the 
 child is for months nourished by her blood, and 
 made better or worse by her state of mind. Some 
 writers have gone so far as to maintain, that a 
 woman, by living right during the months of preg- 
 nancy, can make the unborn child bear almost any 
 character she pleases, and many facts bearing on 
 this point have been adduced. Mrs. Farnham 
 believed this, and maintained it strongly in hei 
 " Woman and her Era." " To the masculine," said 
 this thoughtful writer, "parentage is an incident ;" 
 and then she adds, " To the feminine it is being set 
 apart by nature to a sacred trust which can be vio- 
 lated only at tremendous peril ; peril to the moral 
 and physical welfare, both of herself =:jd the com-
 
 108 APPENDIX. 
 
 ing life ; peril proportioned to the a # ful magnitude 
 of the responsibility, and to the divine demands 
 it makes upon nature in whose innermost depths 
 of soul and body, a life is deposited, to draw thence 
 support, form, and expression." Gal ton has probably 
 done more to settle this question than any other 
 man ; and as his views are the most recent and not 
 generally known, a brief statement of them will 
 not be out of place. He carefully traced the biog- 
 raphies of a large number of illustrious men in dif- 
 ferent walks of life, and found that among judges, 
 statesmen, commanders, men of literature, and men 
 of science, in one hundred cases 70 of them would 
 be found to have derived their talent mainly from, 
 their fathers, and 30 mainly from their mothers. 
 In the case of poets and artists, the influence of 
 the female line is enormously less than the male, be- 
 ing 94 to 6 in the former, and 85 to 15 in the latter- 
 Eminent divines, however, he finds inherit their 
 talent very largely from their mothers, the relation 
 being 73 to 27 in their favor. Mr. Galton, however, 
 admits that the apparent incapacity of the female 
 line for transmitting peculiar forms of ability may 
 be due to the fact that the daughters of eminent 
 men do not marry so frequently as other women 
 He makes an exception in the case of the laughters 
 of eminent divines, they being quite as like 1 }: to 
 marry as the women of any class. If we admit the 
 truth of these investigations, hhe conclusions ive
 
 APPENDIX J09 
 
 must arrive at, are, that the intellectual faculties 
 an; most likely to be inherited from the father, and 
 the moral nature from the mother, and this is no 
 doubt near the truth. Each sex gives to the off 
 spring what it has the most of. 
 
 In regard to bodily conformation, the same gen 
 eral principle seems to hold good, the male trans- 
 mitting the bony frame-work and the muscular 
 system, lungs and heart, and the female the vital 
 organs, especially the organs of digestion and assim- 
 ilation. It is well to bear these points in mind, as 
 they may often aid in deciding the physiological 
 adaptation of two persons who may wish to marry. 
 
 On the whole we may infer that the influence of 
 the different sexes on offspring is about equal, and it 
 is probably well that this is so. It gives to each 
 an equal right in them, and imposes, if not the 
 same, at least equal duties, and this is what all chil- 
 dren need. A child should never be brought up 
 ander the exclusive influence of either sex; there 
 are many things a mother only can do for it, and 
 quite as many things a father only can do. 
 
 SHALL PREGNANT WOMEST WORK ? Some yean 
 ftgo, a thoughtful mother wrote an article for a 
 leading American magazine, from which the fol- 
 lowing sentence is taken : " Children born of over- 
 worked mothers, are liable to be a dwarfed and 
 puny race. I am inclined to think, however, that
 
 110 APPENDIX. 
 
 their chances are better than those of the children 
 of inactive, dependent, indolent mothers, who have 
 Ufither 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 man and woman ; 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. At least it is 
 certain 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, how- 
 ever, will not only not do harm, but positive good. 
 
 INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY AND PARENTAGE. 
 Another question of interest is, whether great in- 
 tellectual activity is favorable to maternity, or the 
 reverse. There is probably but one answer to this 
 question, and that is " the more personal expendi- 
 ture of nervous energy, the less maternal vigor." 
 (f all the life-force is used up on the brain and 
 nerves, little is left for the processes of procreation. 
 Great and constant nervous exertion involves a 
 costly outlay of life. 
 
 E. Ray Lankester, in his excellent Prize Essay 
 on Comparative Longevity, says, " It is noteworthy 
 thut the generative expenditure is lesseced in
 
 APPENDIX. Ill 
 
 *omen when the personal expenditure is increased, 
 a* is distinctly observed in the United States ol 
 America, where the women are intellectually fas 
 more active than elsewhere, and suffer, so far, from 
 the relatively enormous costliness of nervous out- 
 lay. Thus the material of generation serves as a 
 store which is drawn upon before the general powera 
 involving longevity are affected in women." The 
 reader, however, must not misunderstand this quo- 
 tation. It does not teach that women may not 
 become cultivated and intellectual without loss of 
 procreative power, but they must not use up too 
 much of their energy in intellectual activity if they 
 wish to become mothers. Engrossing literary pur- 
 suits, no less than anxiety, care, and an overtaxed 
 physical system, interferes with procreation. There 
 are those who spurn child-bearing as ignoble com- 
 pared with intellectual labor, but the successful 
 rearing of noble boys and girls, is the greatest work 
 that has ever been accomplished on this planet 
 Literature, art, science, all pale before it. In it all 
 culture and discipline, all goodness and beauty 
 2ombine. "The woman's womanliness and the 
 man's manliness find full expression here in the 
 quality of offspring." James Parton says, " The 
 best man is he who can rear the best ch:!d, and tho 
 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
 
 112 APPENDIX. 
 
 Zenobia; how much more should we sing praises 
 to the man and the woman who bring into the 
 world a noble boy or girl. The one is a piece of 
 lifeless beauty, the other a piece of life including 
 %11 beauty, all possibilities. 
 
 Mss. STANTON'S TESTIMONY. 
 
 ELIZABETH CADY STANTON", in a lecture to ladies, 
 delivered after most of this work was in print, thus 
 strongly states her views regarding maternity, and 
 painless parturition : 
 
 "We must educate our daughters to think that 
 motherhood is grand, and that God never cursed 
 it. And the curse, if it be a curse, may be rolled 
 off, as man has rolled away the curse of labor ; as 
 the curse has been rolled from the descendants 
 of Ham. My mission among i?omen is to preach 
 this new gospel. If you suffer, it is not because 
 you are cursed of God, but because you violate his 
 laws. What an incubus it would take from woman 
 could she be educated to know that the pains of 
 maternity are no curse upon her kind. We know 
 that among Indians the squaws do not suffer in 
 childbirth. They will step aside from the ranks, 
 even on the march, and return in a short time 
 bearing with them the new-born child. What an 
 absurdity, then, to suppose that only enlightered 
 Christian women are cursed. But one word of 1-.wi 
 is worth a volume of philosophy ; let me give ^ou
 
 Al'l'KXDIX. 113 
 
 some of my own experience. I am the mother of 
 seven children. My girlhood was spent mostly in 
 the open air. I early imbibed the idea that a girl 
 was just as good as a boy, and I carried it out. 1 
 would walk five miles before breakfast, or ride ten 
 on horseback. After I was married I wore my 
 clothing sensibly. Their weight hung entirely on 
 my shoulders. I never compressed my body out 
 of its natural shape. When my first four children 
 were, born, I suffered very little. I then made up 
 my mind that it was totally unnecessary for me to 
 suffer at all; so I dressed lightly, walked every day, 
 lived as much as possible in the open air, eat no 
 condiments or spices, kept quiet, listened to music, 
 looked at pictures, and took proper care of myself. 
 The night before the birth of the child I walked 
 three miles. The child was born without a par- 
 ticle of pain. I bathed it and dressed it, and it 
 weighed ten and one-half pounds. That same day 
 I dined with the family. Everybody said I would 
 surely die, but I never had a relapse or a moment's 
 inconvenience from it. I know this is not being 
 delicate and refined, but if you would be vigorous 
 and healthy, in spite of the diseases o f vour ances- 
 tors, and your own disregard 01 nature's laws, 
 try it."
 
 APPENDI! TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 HEALI-H LIFT FOR PREGNANT WOMEN -- 
 W ithin a very lew years, a new system of physical 
 culture has been introduced into a few of our large 
 cities, and has been highly approved by very many 
 intelligent physicians, and other persons who have 
 used it. It consists in lifting, on a peculiarly-con- 
 structed machine, weights of iron in such a manner 
 as to call simultaneously into rather vigorous, but 
 not sudden, exercise nearly every muscle of the 
 body. The effect upon the abdominal muscles, which 
 are principally concerned in expelling the child, is 
 to give them greater strength. In civilized woman, 
 these muscK-s are generally lax and weak, owing to 
 her sedentai y habits and methods of dress ; and 
 much of the tediousness of labor is often caused by 
 this weakness. The Lifting-Cure, as taught by Dr. 
 Butler, of Boston, and Drs. Janes and Young, of New- 
 York, on their delicately-contrived machines, if care- 
 fully adapted to the strength and condition of the 
 patient, tends to cure this pelvic weakness, and so 
 far prevent tediousness and suffering in child-birth. 
 The reader need not bo alarmed when the word
 
 
 116 APPENDIX. 
 
 " lifting" is used, as the weights may be exceedingly 
 light, and so evenly distributed over the body as tc 
 produce no strain upon any part ; but, on the con- 
 trary, an exhilarating effect, on account of the 
 equalizing effect it has upon the circulation. In 
 order to bring the subject fairly before the reader, 
 the following questions were sent to Dr. Butler, and 
 the following answers received : 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 " Have you had any experience with the effects of 
 your lifting exercises upon pregnant women, and if 
 so, what have they been ? 
 
 " First. Upon preventing the pain and tediousness 
 of child-birth ? 
 
 " Second. What have been the effects on the 
 health of the mother during pregnancy ? 
 
 "Third. What have been the effects upon the 
 child ? 
 
 " Fourth. Are there any other effects noticed, and 
 if so, what ?" 
 
 ANSWEBS. 
 
 " The effect of the Health-Lift, as produced by us 
 on our machines, has been to diminish the pain and 
 shorten the time of labor in cases of women who 
 had previously borne children ; and in cases where 
 Mromen have borne them for the first time,
 
 APPENDIX. 117 
 
 physicians have been astonished at the freedom 
 from severe and protracted suffering in child-bed. 
 
 " Second. Th* effect on the health of the mother 
 has been uniformly favorable. 
 
 " Third. The effect on the child has been as uni- 
 formly favorable. Of all that have been born of 
 mothers who have lifted prior to and during preg- 
 nancy, but one has died. Mothers who, previous 
 to lifting, have borne only puny children, have 
 borne healthy ones. As their own health improves, 
 they have been able to transmit vigor in place of 
 feebleness to their offspring. 
 
 " Fourth. The barren, in several cases, have be- 
 come fruitful. This, however, has not been uni- 
 formly the case. 
 
 " Fifth. Women who have invariably miscarried 
 have, after lifting a few months, escaped this dis- 
 aster, and given birth to healthy children." 
 
 So much for the Health-Lift. The reader must 
 bear in mind, however, that lifting on delicately-con- 
 structed machinery, in such a position as to prevent 
 strain and injury, and with light weights, and under 
 the eye of a teacher, is a very different matter from 
 lifting heavy pots, kettles, and weights, or on badly- 
 constructed apparatus without a teacher. The 
 time spent in lifting each day, under the superin- 
 tendence of a wise guide, would not be more than one 
 or two minutes, and Avould tax the muscles lightly 
 l>Ht eve-lily, while the miscellaneous lifting would
 
 118 APPENDIX. 
 
 do quite the reverse. This knowledge may oftec 
 be useful to those who can take advantage of it, 
 and need exercises of this character. The deduc- 
 tions of Dr. Butler are the result of observations 
 in about fifty cases. 
 
 THE SIZE or THE PELVIS AND ITS RELATION TO 
 PAINLESS PARTURITION. It would be impossible 
 within the limits of a work like this to present any 
 thing like a detailed description of the pelvis, so- 
 called that portion of the human frame which, in 
 the female, plays so important a part in the process 
 of parturition ; but there are many things concern- 
 ing it which every woman may find it of use to 
 know, and which can be easily understood without 
 entering into the minutiae of its construction or em- 
 ploying difficult and technical words to explain. 
 
 In general terms, it may be briefly described as a 
 bony cavity or passage, in which are inclosed the 
 internal organs of generation, and through which 
 the child is to pass when it has attained the highest 
 point of intra-uterine development of which it is 
 capable. Its outline is extremely irregular and of 
 considerable size, varying, of course, according to 
 individual conformation. It is composed of several 
 bones, firmly bound together by strong ligaments, 
 the whole forming a basin-shaped excavation, situa- 
 ted at the inferior extremity of the body or trunk. 
 A circular line or ndge divides it into two unequaJ
 
 APPENDIX. 119 
 
 parts, the upper portion being much the larger oi 
 the two, having broad flat walls sloping upward 
 and outward, terminating at the top in what are 
 familiarly called the hips. This circular line is what 
 is known as the superior strait of the pelvis, and at 
 this point, the head of the child first engages when 
 the process of labor commences. The lower or 
 true pelvis, that part lyin<; below this line, is much 
 smaller, and constitutes the outlet through which 
 the child is to be forced into the external world. 
 Each of these portions has been accurately measured 
 in its several diameters, in order to establish the 
 dimensions of the normal, healthy pelvis, and to 
 determine what degree of deformity might exist, 
 and yet insure safety to both mother and child. 
 These measurements are as follows, remembering 
 that these numbers refer only to the inside of the 
 pelvis, and that when clothed with the soft tissues, 
 muscles, etc., the diameters would necessarily be a 
 little less. 
 
 The transverse diameter, or that extending di- 
 rectly across from hip to hip of a healthy pelvis is 
 five inches ; the antero-posterior diameter, from be 
 fore backward, four inches ; and the obliqi>e dia- 
 meters, right and left respectively, four and a half 
 inches. Those of the lower portion are almost ex- 
 actly the reverse of the upper, the antero-posterioi 
 J : amctcr being about five inches, the oblique four 
 and a half, and the transverse four. Different obser v-
 
 120 APPENDIX. 
 
 ers change these figures slightly, but the difference is 
 of no practical moment. It will be seen from this 
 description that in descending from the cavity of 
 the abdomen into that of the pelvis the child must 
 necessarily perform a rotary movement before it 
 can escape from the lower pelvis ; and this is really 
 the case. The diameters of the child's head are in 
 harmony with those of the pelvis, and must corre- 
 spond with them in its descent, in order to insure a 
 natural and safe delivery. Wherever the head of 
 the child can pass, the shoulders and other portions 
 of the body can follow without difficulty. 
 
 A deformed pelvis is one whose natural symmetry 
 has been perverted by some change, the result of 
 accident or disease incurred in early life, and by far 
 the great majority are the result of disease. In 
 this country they are, happily, very rare. Nearly 
 all the cases met with are in women of foreign 
 birth, who have been subject, while infants, or in 
 early childhood, to rachitis, or rickets, as it is gene- 
 rally called. It consists in a deficiency of the earthy 
 matter of the bones, by reason of which they lack 
 firmness and strength, and is caused mainly by im- 
 pure air, insufficient ventilation, and neglect of clean- 
 liness. It exists chiefly among the poor children of 
 the large cities in England, \vho, at a very earlv 
 age, are confined at labor unsuited to their years in 
 close and heated factories, and workshops of vari- 
 ous kinds That portion of their food also which
 
 APPENDIX. 12 
 
 should create bony matter not being assimilated, 
 the animal portion attains undue proportion, and 
 the bones, in consequence, become soft, fragile, and 
 flexible. If properly treated, however, most of 
 fchese cases might in time be restored to a healthy 
 condition, but, as too often happens, the child ar- 
 rives at mature age permanently deformed. The 
 pelvis, under these conditions, assumes a variety of 
 forms, according to the position most frequently 
 adopted by the child and the nature of its exercise, 
 but most commonly it is flattened from before 
 backward, in shape something like that of an hour- 
 glass. Of course, there are various degrees of de- 
 formity, and it is not impossible, where it is only 
 slight in extent, for a child to be carried to its full 
 term and safely born, but the labor would be pro- 
 tracted and difficult. The following measurements 
 of a deformed pelvis may be considered as a safe 
 guide on this point : 
 
 If the antero-posterior diameter of the supei-ior 
 strait be less than four and more than three inches, 
 it is possible for a full-grown child to pass, though 
 instruments will probably be required. If less than 
 three and more than two inches, the child must bo 
 sacrificed if the mother's life is to be saved, unless, 
 as is occasionally possible, the child may be turned 
 and delivered by the feet, the head being compressed 
 Bufficiently to allow it to pass. But should this? 
 diameter be less than two inches, the dreadful altri'
 
 122 APPENDIX. 
 
 native of cramotomy or Caesarian section is pre- 
 sented The responsibility of conducting such 
 cases rests, of course, with the attending physician, 
 who should make himself acquainted with the exact 
 amount of deformity, and exercise his best judgment 
 and greatest skill in averting any unfavorable ter- 
 mination either to mother or child. A woman whose 
 pelvis is markedly deformed, should never become 
 pregnant ; and if this does occur, labor should be 
 induced as soon as her condition becomes known. 
 Women with deformed pelves are usually very thin, 
 and of a strong consumptive or scrofulous tendency. 
 They will notice that the hip bones are not sym- 
 metrical, one being higher than the other, or other- 
 wise disproportioned ; and, if pregnant, they " quick- 
 en," as the saying is, sooner than other women, 
 while the abdomen shows the presence of the child 
 at an earlier period than usual. 
 
 From this it will be seen how important it is that 
 the pelvis should be normal in every respect, and 
 this can only be secured by the avoidance of those 
 causes before-mentioned, more especially if the in- 
 fant is born of scrofulous or consumptive parents ; 
 for it is only in early life that this deformity occurs, 
 never after the age of puberty. Nothing better 
 can be done than to give such a child plenty of 
 fresh, pure milk, animal food, if old enough ; daily 
 exorcise, suited to its age, in the open air; warm 
 clothing, five from constriction, and allowing the
 
 iPPENDIX. 123 
 
 full play of all its liraVs, an erect carriage, a judioiotu 
 system of bathing, and, in short, every hygienic 
 influence which nature and common sense can 
 supply. 
 
 A SPECIAL CAUSE OF PAIN IN CHILDBIRTH. The 
 following letter has been received from a very intel- 
 ligent woman of large experience and observation, 
 and one who gave birth to a child weighing eleven 
 pounds without suffering, when in a condition of 
 perfect health, but afterwards suffered much at the 
 birth to one weighing only five pounds. She says, 
 
 " DEAR SIR : I have read your valuable work, 
 1 Parturition without Pain] with great interest, and 
 believe if the hints contained therein were carried 
 out it would prevent a great deal of needless suffer- 
 ing. Will you allow an experienced woman to say 
 that very much of the pain in childbirth is the re- 
 sult of a diseased condition, such as ulceration, in- 
 flammation, etc., of the os uteri ? The dilation of 
 the os uteri for the passage of the child when it is 
 in a diseased condition gives rise to distressing 
 pains ; but I see no reason why, in perfect health, 
 its dilation should be more painful than opening 
 the mouth. The diet, dress, and modes of life 
 adopted by so many women in civilized society for 
 generations ha caused a majority of them to inherit 
 or a< quire a diseased condition of the organs >/
 
 124 APPENDIX. 
 
 generation, which nothing but a return to a natural 
 and healthful method of living will cure. 
 
 "Allow me, also, to add that on page 42 of 
 your book I was sorry you did not, among other 
 things to be avoided, mention the harm that comes 
 from laboring much in a stooping position during 
 pregnancy. Women who work in the field bent 
 over at hoeing and digging, or similar work, much 
 more frequently have the child turned from its na- 
 tural position, causing wrong presentations and thus 
 occasioning much severe pain and suffering. 
 
 " Truly, MRS. II." 
 
 MRS. PLUMB'S OPINION. The following is an ex* 
 
 o 
 
 tract from a letter received from Mrs. Z. R. Plumb, 
 just as the second edition of this work was being 
 sent to press, whom A'ery many will recognize as, 
 for many years, the proprietor of a very large and 
 useful gymnastic academy in Ne \v-York, where 
 thousands of men, women, and children were under 
 gymnastic training, the value of which, in many 
 cases, can never be estimated. It is in reply to a 
 request for her observation upon the effects of gym- 
 nastic training upon pregnant women. She says, 
 
 "While I regaid exercise as all-important for a 
 healthful, natural, and comparatively painless par- 
 turition, it should be in a suitable dress giving 
 perfect freedom of motion. Thus equipped, I know 
 from personal experience that even vigorous exen
 
 APPENDIX. 12i 
 
 cise during pregnancy has proved very beneficial 
 and not hurtful, and tie control and strength of mus- 
 cle thus acquired will aid immensely at the birth of 
 the child. 
 
 " I knew a case where a lady exercised as had 
 been her previous habit several hours daily in the 
 calisthenium for light gymnastics until very near 
 confinement took sitz baths freely, and instead of 
 miscarriage, as some might infer, there was not the 
 slightest tendency in that direction. I heard it re- 
 marked in this case by the attending physician that 
 it was the most natural labor he had ever witness 
 ed. The presentation was perfect, and the delivery 
 entirely satisfactory, though not without severe suf- 
 fering for a few hours from constitutional causes. 
 The child, how several years old, is finely developed 
 and symmetrical, with apparently a higher grade 
 of vitality and constitution than the parents possess. 
 
 " Hounework has its advantages ; but I think there 
 is a tendency to overtax one set of muscles while 
 neglecting to bring others into healthy action. 
 There is too much standing in one position and 
 working with the arms forward and chest contract- 
 ed. Then again, in household labor, the magnetism 
 is thrown off and expended for others, while in out- 
 door and calisthenic exercises the mind is relaxed, 
 and with freedom from care, the magnetic force is 
 retained and husbanded. Perhaps I do not make 
 myself clear on this point ; but I believe that domes'
 
 1 26 APPENDIX. 
 
 tic labor alone does not folly perfect and prepare 
 the system for the work of maternity. Sitting 
 and bending of the form forward in child nursing 
 would seem to suggest the importance of counter- 
 acting exercises throwing the shoulders backward 
 and inducing an erect position, and expansion of 
 the chest. 
 
 " Finally, when women and men shall revere their 
 bodies too sacredly to deform them to satisfy per- 
 verted tastes too holily to poison the fountain of 
 life with the dregs of tobacco and stimulating 
 drinks and when men shall learn that their highest 
 good and happiness lies in making woman queen in 
 what all are willing to grant is her peculiar sphere 
 then, and not till then, will children be a blessing. 
 Enforced and unwilling maternity is not the habit 
 of the brute ; why of the human, so-called, enlight- 
 ened world ? 
 
 " As sure as the little girl takes the serenest de- 
 light in her * make-believe ' pets, so surely would 
 the free, pure, healthy, womanly woman prove true 
 to her God-given instincts. 
 
 " Then will the earth be pf opled with the glad 
 faces of children welcome from the hour of concep- 
 tion, and thrice welcomed when the now dangerous 
 crisis has passed, and the woman is for ever glori- 
 fied and crowned witii the unspeakable wealth of 
 motherhood. Z. R. PLUMB."
 
 APPENDIX. 127 
 
 The caution elsewhere given that prospective 
 mothers should never engage in special gymnastic 
 exercise withe ut the advice and oversight of a skill- 
 ful and experienced teacher need not here be re- 
 peated. It would be quite as sensible to send a sick 
 person to the druggist to choose his own remedy as 
 to advise gymnastic exercises without at the same 
 time providing against an abuse of them, which 
 can only result disastrously.
 
 APPENDIX TO THE EIGHTH EDITION. 
 
 To THE EDITOR : 
 
 DEAR SIR: Some time since I purchased a 
 copy of '* Parturition without Pain." A friend 
 borrowing it asked permission to lend it to Dr. 
 S., who is considered a very eminent physician. 
 His opinion was, that it was a book calculated to 
 do a great deal of harm, a book made to sell ; so 
 much acid put in the system by the fruit diet was 
 a positive injury to both mother and child, giv- 
 ing them both the colic after the child's birth. 
 
 As I am not brilliant enough to reply to his 
 argument in regard to the acid, will you please 
 be kind enough to give me an answer for him ? 
 Respectfully, A SUBSCRIBER. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA., March 18, 1874. 
 
 DEAR MADAM : The editor has sent me your 
 letter, dated February 4rth, with the request that 
 I should answer it. 
 
 The reasoning of Dr. S. is so absurd that I 
 really do not see what I am to say in direct
 
 130 APPENDIX. 
 
 reply. My own style of reasoning on all sub- 
 jects is so practical that it will, no doubt, receive 
 the contempt of those who have a fancy for fine 
 theories. But I have seen so many promising 
 theories built up without any basis in fact what- 
 ever that I prefer to seek facts direct, and let 
 theories go. 
 
 Now, the facts in regard to a fruit diet in 
 pregnancy,- so far as I know them, are, briefly, 
 these : The little volume " Parturition without 
 Pain" gives a number of instances of women 
 who, by following the rules in regard to diet, 
 etc., have found their condition before, during, 
 and after confinement greatly improved. Sec- 
 ondly, I can speak in the most positive terms in 
 regard to myself, having, on two occasions, fol- 
 lowed, the suggestions of this volume, so far as 
 practicable, and on both trials experiencing a 
 radical change for the better. Thirdly, the ex- 
 perience of all who, by my example and advice, 
 have been led to the same course of living during 
 pregnancy, exactly coincides with mine. Fourth- 
 ly, Dr. Holbrook assures me that he is constantly 
 receiving voluntary testimony heartily indorsing 
 the truth of the advantages of the fruit diet. 
 Now it seems to me here are enough facts to
 
 APPENDIX. 131 
 
 break down all the theories which all the pro- 
 fessional men in the world might be able to con- 
 struct against it. 
 
 I once heard a physician object to the fruit 
 diet on the ground that it would not give enough 
 strength to the pregnant woman to undergo the 
 severe trial of parturition. But if the trial be 
 robbed of its severity, where is the need of the 
 extra strength ? Again, what strength is impart- 
 ed by rich, strong animal food that is ejected 
 from the stomach, or else passes out of the sys- 
 tem undigested and unassimilated ? Or, if this 
 food be digested and assimilated, what is the 
 result ? Why, plethora, that most dreaded foe 
 of the pregnant woman, leading either to miscar- 
 riage or to a terrible confinement, in which the 
 chances of death are greatly augmented. 
 
 But we do not need to theorize on this matter. 
 Facts are sufficient. And the women who have 
 tried the fruit diet unanimously testify that, 
 first, there is not so great an expenditure of 
 strength needed during confinement ; and, sec- 
 ondly, they regain their strength much sooner 
 afterward. At my confinement I was dressed, 
 about my room, and at my daily writing on the 
 eighth day, which was being quite as smart as I
 
 132 APPENDIX. 
 
 expected to be on the twenty-first day under the 
 old plan. 
 
 Dr. S.'s theory is that " the fruit diet is a 
 positive injury to both mother and child, giving 
 them both the colic after the child's birth." 
 Facts prove that the doctor is mistaken. 
 
 Let us examine what the fruit diet does. Both 
 by what it excludes and what it furnishes it pre- 
 vents indigestion and nausea, or morning sick- 
 ness ; it avoids the dangers of plethora ; and it 
 prevents too great a hardening of the bones of 
 the embryo, thus rendering parturition more 
 easy. Will the doctor pretend that any of these 
 avoided conditions are ones necessary to the 
 good health of either mother or child ? If he 
 does, he simply proves himself unworthy to be 
 heeded. And the hard, incontrovertible facts go 
 to prove that colic is unknown by either mother 
 or child when the fruit diet is faithfully ad- 
 hered to. 
 
 If you have occasion to test the virtues of this 
 diet do it without fear, feeling assured that the 
 theories of any doctor under the sun can never 
 hurt you while the facts are all in your favor. 
 I hold such an undoubting faith in the efficacy 
 of the fruit diet in pregnancy that I believe it is
 
 APPENDIX. 133 
 
 capable of revolutionizing all the conditions of 
 maternity, and, I might almost add, of removing 
 the primal curse which declared to women, " in 
 sorrow shalt thou bring forth children." The 
 homeopathist might here exclaim, " Sim/ilia 
 similibus curantur /" As Eve got into trouble 
 by eating an apple, so may she get out of it by 
 eating another. 
 
 Whatever course of diet or exercise serves to 
 render pregnancy a state of health and comfort, 
 and parturition easy, must be a correct and nat- 
 ural course. Pregnancy is a state of health, not 
 of disease and suffering ; and those who declare 
 it to be the latter libel their Creator. 
 
 Yours truly, MRS. E. B. DUFFEY. 
 
 The following letter is from Mrs. Horace 
 Mann, and will be found to corroborate the state- 
 ment of Mrs. Duffey : 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, April 28, 1874. 
 
 To : On reading Mrs. Duffey's letter to 
 
 you, in the last HERALD OF HEALTH, I resolved to 
 write you of a very striking instance of the cm' 
 cacy of the fruit diet in pregnancy, an account of 
 which appeared in Dr. Holbrook's volume, en-
 
 J 34: APPENDIX. 
 
 titled " Parturition without Pain." A sistei of 
 mine had followed that regimen strictly, and 
 found the benefit of it in bringing into the world 
 children of uncommon physical and mental vigor, 
 having a development of body far exceeding her 
 own in health. One day she visited a friend, a 
 lady of wealth, who was out of spirits because 
 she was expecting a repetition of the calamity 
 which had occurred in several instances of child- 
 birth in her own case. She was a woman of fine 
 health, and the children whom she had success- 
 ively lost (I think there were three) were fine, 
 large specimens of the human being ; but so 
 large in the head and of such hard bone that 
 they could not be born, and were all taken from 
 the mother by instruments. She had found her- 
 self again pregnant, and expressed great sorrow 
 that her own and her husband's desire to have 
 children should meet with such sad disappoint- 
 ment. Everything that wealth and the kindness 
 of the most considerate of husbands could do was 
 always done. The first physicians and midwives 
 gave their aid ; but, after great suffering, the 
 result had always been the same. The mother 
 soon recovered after these trials, and insisted 
 that she was always perfectly well after the
 
 APPEXDIX. 135 
 
 birth. My sister asked her how she lived as to 
 iliet and exercise. She said she drove out nearly 
 Dvery day, and ato the most nourishing diet 
 bhiefly bread and milk and digested her food 
 well. My sister then told her of the regimen 
 prescribed by Dr. Kovvbotham, and she conclud- 
 ed to give it a faithful trial. Instead of driving 
 in her carriage, and sitting still the rest of the 
 time, she promised to take a good walk every 
 day at stated times. When the time of birth 
 approached, the same preparations were made as 
 on former similar occasions, the same array of 
 physicians and nurses were in attendance, and 
 all friends were anxious lest a repetition of the 
 calamity might at last prove fatal to the mother. 
 One day she returned from a three-mile walk, 
 and, feeling a little fatigued, she sat down on the 
 rocking-chair in her bedchamber, before taking 
 off her bonnet. Feeling a little uneasy she rose 
 from the chair, and, as she walked across the 
 room, the child was born upon the floor, without 
 a premonitory pain ! Since that time she has 
 had several children with ease, and became, con- 
 sequently, a convert to the system, as many of 
 her friends were. 
 
 My sister's children were the quietest babes I
 
 136 APPENDIX. 
 
 ever knew. They were less troubled with colic 
 than most children ; but it is true that their 
 mother ate wholly in reference to them, and 
 avoided acids and green vegetables after their 
 birth, and always had an abundance of food for 
 them. Respectfully, 
 
 MARY MANN. 
 
 BKISTOLVILLE, O., June, 1872. 
 DR. M. L. HOLBROOK: 
 
 DEAR SIR : My wife got your book " Parturi- 
 tion without Pain" some five months previous to 
 her confinement. From that time she followed 
 your directions with regard to sitz baths, and, in 
 part, her diet. She ate very little bread, and 
 drank neither tea nor coffee, but lived mostly on 
 fruit and vegetables. She did her own work 
 four in the family until her confinement ; did 
 not suffer any hard paiti previous to the birth of 
 the child ; retired at night as well as usual, and 
 slept soundly until two hours before the child 
 was born. This is our fourth child, and she has 
 heretofore been sick twelve to twenty -four hours. 
 When our last child was born, four years ago, 
 she was confined to her bed six weeks, but this 
 time she was able to sit up in eight days. The
 
 APPENDIX. 137 
 
 child is eleven weeks old, and she is feeling well 
 and strong as ever. The child weighed nine and 
 three-quarter pounds, and is fine and healthy. I 
 never saw a child enjoy a hath any better than 
 it does. Both of our other children cried con- 
 stantly, while they were being washed and 
 dressed, until they were a year old. I firmly 
 believe it was my wife's barhing previous to her 
 sickness that made the difference. I think 
 your book was a great help to her. She wishes 
 every woman in that situation could read your 
 book, and hopes it may have a wide circulation. 
 Yours truly, B. FAUSS. 
 
 The following letter was forwarded by Dr. 
 Moffatt, an eminent physician of Brooklyn, 
 N. Y. : 
 
 SPRING FARM, N. -I., July 21, 1873. 
 
 DEAR DR. MOFFATT 1 write knowing that you 
 will be glad to learn that 1 am the happy mother 
 of a little girl, now two weeks old. My particu- 
 lar object in writing at this time is to give you 
 my experience in regard to fruit diet. You 
 know that I followed the directions of the little 
 book I lent you quite religiously, before the
 
 Hi 8 APPENDIX. 
 
 birth of Ellis, and I attributed the comparatively 
 easy labor 1 had to doing so. This time I was 
 so busy moving out to the country, and fruit is 
 so scarce here in the spring, that I did not 
 change my food at all ; and, in consequence, I 
 had a very horrible, protracted labor. I think 
 you will be doing a kindness to those of your 
 patients who expect to become mothers, by urg- 
 ing them to persevere in following with care the 
 rules for diet laid down in " Parturition without 
 Pain." Yours very truly, 
 
 Dr. A. Smith, of Geneva, N. Y., says that he 
 has given a copy of the book to all his patients 
 as a guide to living during pregnancy, and with 
 uniformly satisfactory results, except in those 
 cases where there are some idiosyncrasies or 
 pelvic deformities. 
 
 Another physician says two of her patients 
 who have followed the directions of the work 
 have found that while they did not altogether 
 escape pain, bearing children was an easy matter 
 compared with the old way. 
 
 Another writes : " Your book has been a boon 
 to me. It has done all it promised." 
 
 Another, the wife of a very distinguished phy-
 
 APPENDIX. 139 
 
 Bi'cian, says : " I attribute entirely to it the ease 
 with which I bore my first child, though ad- 
 vanced in age and with a narrow pelvis, and also 
 the health of the child." 
 
 We might go on quoting from letters received, 
 but it is unnecessary. 
 
 We may add that sometimes there is a failure 
 to realize an)' good. This, however, may be 
 accounted for in many ways. The directions 
 may not be fully carried out. There may be a 
 contracted pelvis. The person may be of such a 
 feeble constitution that she ought not to bear 
 children at all. Such cases are common, and 
 they cannot expect to escape more or less suffer- 
 ing- 
 
 The editor sends the eighth edition of his 
 
 little book on its mission of mercy, with the 
 hope that it will, as heretofore, be warmly wel- 
 comed, and do some service for women who 
 have suffered so much to perpetuate the race.
 
 CARE OF CHILDREN. 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. CLEMENCE S. LOZIER, 
 
 DBAN Of THE NEW- YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, KTO. 
 
 * LITTLE children are idols of hearts and of households, 
 They are angels of God in disguise ; 
 His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses, 
 His glory still gleams in their eyes : 
 Oh ! those truants from home and from heaven, 
 They have made me more manly and mild, 
 And I know how Jesus could liken 
 The kingdom of Qod to a child."
 
 CAKE OF CHILDREN.* 
 
 1 as clothing should be prepared for a new-born 
 infant of fine, soft material. If it be the season 
 requiring woolen flannels, have them of the softest 
 woox and silk mixed. Some mothers line their 
 infants' woolen bands with old soft linen or white 
 silk, which is very nice. In summer, flannel bands 
 should always be lined with linen, fine and soft, or 
 substitute linen instead of flannel for the bands do 
 not hem them or have seams in them run the edges 
 or overcast them loosely. Woolen foot-blankets or 
 skirts are always suitable, as our climate is so 
 changeable; but if the tender little feet are red- 
 dened and made sensitive by it, by all means shield 
 them with soft linen, cotton, or white silk. Let the 
 napkins be soft linen, with cotton flannel over- 
 napkins, and be sure to avoid the rubber cloth, as 
 it weakens the child by its being too air-tight ; any 
 garment impervious to the natural exhalations of 
 the body is debilitating checking, as it does, trans- 
 piration from the cutaneous surface, and preventing 
 
 * The author has kindly permitted this excellent essay tc 
 appear in this work.
 
 144 CAEK OF CHILDREN. 
 
 the tonic effect of oxygen or pure air. Those rub 
 ber diapers are a curse to infants. Make the gar- 
 ments with as few seams and gathers as possible; 
 never starch infant clothing; many an infant is 
 dosed to death for crying, when, if comfortably 
 dressed, it would never be restless. Perhaps the 
 elegantly ruffled starch shirts and tight arm-holes 
 of its dress and the drawing-string of the neck are 
 its instruments of torture. Old or soft new muslin 
 made into loose-fitting, long-sleeved bed-dresses for 
 the first three months, is most sensible. Few physi- 
 cians or nurses are thoughtful enough of the sensi- 
 tive, tender skin of a new-born infant. Its first 
 crying is caused by the exposure of the skin to the 
 atmosphere, and, although it serves the purpose to 
 expand the lungs, is not always needful. Testing 
 this fact, I have many times been careful to shield 
 the infant in a soft, warm covering at birth, and 
 many of my most healthy babes have looked up 
 and breathed freely without crying at all, and 
 always cease crying in a few minutes when covered 
 properly, leaving the face bare, and placing them 
 on the right side with the head and chest a little 
 elevated in good air. 
 
 The umbilical cord tied and severed, the child 
 becomes an individual being. The heart and lungs, 
 assuming their final functions, go on to nourish the 
 new being from a different source, namely, the 
 stomach. As soon as the child is washed and dressed.
 
 CARE OF CHILDREK. 145 
 
 it should be put to the mother's left oreast, which 
 gives the child the position on its right side, favor- 
 ing the closing of the foramen in the upper part of 
 the heart, through which the arterial circulation was 
 BO active before birth, but is now no longer needed ; 
 remaining open, this causes a mingling of the venous 
 and arterial blood, giving a bluish color, sometimes 
 spotted, to the skin, and known in common is blue 
 sickness. Infants often die from this cause. The 
 washing of an infant should be done carefully and 
 quickly in quite warm water in a warm room, using 
 only oils or lard of the purest kind, and the warm 
 water. Never use soap of any kind, or nursery 
 powder ; the first irritates, the latter closes the pores 
 of the skin ; at least for the first three weeks, oil and 
 warm water will cleanse the child better than soap. 
 I have seldom seen a child suffer with sore eyes or 
 red rash over the body since I have disallowed the 
 use of soap. The privates and nates should always 
 be oiled well every time the diaper is changed. 
 The first secretion from the mother's breast is suffi 
 cient to move the child's bowels and relieve them of 
 their meconium, or early secretions, if both mother 
 and child are in ordinary health ; if not, the best 
 laxative is about one table-spoonful of pleasantly 
 strong elder-blow tea, sweetened with a very little 
 brown sugar or molasses. Give this warm every 
 two hours till it moves the bowels freely, but always 
 wait twenty-four hours before interfering with na-
 
 146 CAKE OF CHILDREN. 
 
 tnre. Of course the midwife or physician wiH 
 examine and rectify, if any local cause or malf onna- 
 tion exist in either the urinary or fecal passages* 
 Then if the child is awkward or refuses to nurse, 
 examine the tongue, and, if a membrane holds it 
 down, cut it with a blunt-pointed scissors, taking 
 care to cut no further than the thin skin or mem- 
 brane, as just beyond you may cut a small artery 
 which will prove fatal. 
 
 Never give your child the rubber nipple nursing- 
 bottle, especially the white rubber, since it contains 
 in its composition the carbonate of lead, which is a 
 sure poison in some cases slow, but none the less 
 sure and generally the child will wean itself after 
 sucking the rubber; the food comes so easily from 
 it, and the mouth becomes too tender in a few days 
 to suck the natural nipple. I have watched the 
 effects of the white-rubber nipple for many years ; 
 have known cases of spinal curvature one oi' com- 
 plete humpback often of decayed teeth, innumera- 
 ble cases of sore mouth, and dysentery or diarrhea, 
 many times causing death ; large, indolent boils on 
 the scalp, eruptions behind the ears and in the folds 
 of the neck, in consequence of sucking the rubber 
 nipple. One case of bow-legs, within my observa- 
 tion, was caused by nothing else than by having 
 worn the rubber cloth diaper. All rubber gum- 
 rings and toys should be avoided ; indeed, I wish 
 every t.hing made from the white robber could
 
 CAIIK OF CFIILF ftKV. 14? 
 
 DO banished from the nursery. Any baby cau b 
 fed at first with a spoon, and in a few weeks it will 
 drink trora a cup or small glass. If any artificial 
 nipple is needed, one of silver, glass, or porcelain 
 can be procured. The black rubber may not be so 
 objectionable as the white. I have known a very 
 good artificial nipple to be made of a fine sponge, 
 with cambric linen covering it. A small quilJ 
 stitched in thoroughly is passed through the centre 
 nearly to the linen cover, and by fitting the sponge 
 over the top of a small-sized bottle it answers a 
 good purpose. The vessels and tub^s can scarcely 
 be kept sweet and clean enough for the health oi 
 the child, and here is another plea for teaching a 
 child that must be fed to drink its food from a cup 
 or glass. 
 
 If a mother has health sufficient to mature a 
 living child, she should by all means nurse it from 
 her own breast, where this is possible. Her 
 own health and future happiness require it, and 
 nothing can quite take its place to her infant. Of 
 wet-nurses, not one in ten have pure btood ; and 
 then the love of the child develops for its nurse, to 
 say nothing of the low and vicious tempers it may 
 imbibe. Oh ! if it could be so that none but willing, 
 loving parents might bear children, what a chang i 
 we should ^ee ! If the mother's nipples are a little 
 tender, which almost always is the case, a good 
 nurse will soon cure them. There are many simples
 
 143 CARE OF CHILDREN. 
 
 suitable for different cases. One of the best I nave 
 ever used is tincture of myrrh, diluted one hall with 
 water; wash the nipple after every attempt to 
 nurse. Many times the nipples are made sore by 
 the white-rubber shield, or nursing-ring of the 
 breast -pump. For the first three to five days, the 
 breasts swell and seem filled with milk, when in 
 fact there is very little milk there ; and if the 
 breasts can be covered with silk, which is a non- 
 conductor of electricity, or kept comfortably warm 
 for a few days, this will disappear without the 
 usual drawing and rubbing, which I find often 
 bruises the parts, causing inflammation. The best 
 relief to the breasts is the nursing babe ; indeed, 
 any person can draw a breast if one will only be 
 careful to wrap the tongue around the nipple to 
 meet the upper lip. 
 
 If there be no alternative, and the babe must be 
 fed, at first give it one tea-spoonful of pure white 
 sugar to half a cup of boiling water ; add one tea- 
 spoonful of sweet cream; if cream can not be had, 
 use the upper third of sweet milk, one third milk 
 and two thirds water, first scalding the sugar ; we 
 find nurses inclined to make the food too sweet for 
 both mother arid child. This food will do for the 
 first t^ree months, if the < hild is delicate ; it any 
 thing stronger seems needed, a little oat-meal or 
 thin barley gruel may take the place of water as 
 above. All new-born infants should be fed at least
 
 CAKE OF CHILDREN: 
 
 every two hours during the day till nine 01 ten 
 at night, and as seldom as possible after bedtime 
 during the night. A babe must not be left to wake 
 up to be fed or cared for, as healthy infants should 
 sleep nearly all the time till they are three months 
 old. Handled tenderly and put to the breast, or 
 fed, will not disturb them so as to make them wake- 
 ful. If the infant's breasts swell or seem hardened, 
 do not pinch or squeeze them ; rub gently, and 
 bathe with one drop of belladonna tincture and a 
 few drops of glycerine, and cover with cotton, wool, 
 or white silk, and in a few days it will disappear. 
 
 The time of weaning ought to be determined by 
 two circumstances : the health of the nurse, and the 
 development and health of the child. When the 
 nurse is well and the milk abundant, weaning should 
 not take place till the development of the teeth 
 shows that a change of food is required. This is 
 about the eighth or ninth month ; but in delicate, 
 feeble children, it should be delayed several months 
 longer a child should not be weaned during the 
 heat of summer nor suddenly wean at first during 
 the day, and gradually. If a child is nursed while 
 it sleeps, for a few days, and never when it is 
 awake, it will not grieve or fret about it ; be sure 
 to teach it to drink from a cup or small glass. The 
 grand rule for weaning is to accustom the child 
 gradually to the use of other nourishments, and to 
 withdraw the breast from it by equally slow degree
 
 150 CARE OF CHILDREN. 
 
 A nurse should be careful not to breathe in the 
 child's face. The breath exhaled from the lungs is 
 poisonous, and falls "like a heavy deadly vapor upon 
 the infant's face as it nurses or sleeps on the arm or 
 ame pillow. Every person should sleep alone, if 
 possible, and as soon as a child can be kept warm 
 sleeping alone, it is much better it should sleep in a 
 bed by itself, and without being rocked while sleep- 
 ing. The habit of talking or chirping to young 
 infants is very wrong; it makes them nervous, and 
 excites the brain too soon ; kissing them, especially 
 on the mouth, is most cruel ; they breathe lightly 
 enough, and to smother them with kisses and bad 
 breath is a silly, unhealthy habit, and most repre- 
 hensible ; any baby is worthy to be kissed on its 
 little hand or foot, but none who truly loves a child 
 will kiss it in the face or on the mouth, if they give 
 it a moment's thought. After a child is three 
 months old, its times for food should be every three 
 houi-rf instead of two, and the quantity increased. 
 ISo.n^ children, from the first, require more in quan- 
 tity Uian others, and it is quite impossible to give 
 the etaot amount for each child; but it is true that 
 a gluttonous habit may be and often is formed ii. 
 infancy. 
 
 Avoid all alcoholic stimulants as you prize the 
 happiness and well-being of your child. Drunkards 
 are made many times by the unconscious indulgence 
 of mothers. Much of our confectionery is full of
 
 CARE OF CHILDREN. 151 
 
 irine and brandy; in this hidden way a desire fo 
 alcoholic stimulus is created ; and though life may 
 not be shortened by its use, it is rendered a curse to 
 itself and all with whom such a life has influence. 
 
 After the babe is washed, the navel cord should 
 be wrapped in soft, dry cloth, as you would roll up 
 a finger, and be turned up and laid on the stomach ; 
 place the band on it so as to pin it in front, as you 
 can more easily look at it, and, if needful, place a 
 soft, clean cloth between it and the abdomen. Never 
 oil the cloth, as we wish it to dry and come off as 
 soon as the fourth or fifth day, and oil keeps up too 
 much moisture. If the cord has not been cut be- 
 fore the circulation ceased, it will give you no trou- 
 ble ; but if there has been too much haste in cutting 
 it, leaving it full of blood and still pulsating, the 
 result will generally be a tardy falling-off and a 
 sore place to heal, endangering the comfort if not the 
 health of the child. If properly cut and cared for, 
 all that it needs, after dressing, is a scorched soft 
 linen cloth, smeared with a little mutton-tallow; if 
 sore, a split raisin is very excellent; remove the 
 seeds and apply. The first week of life, a child 
 should not be entirely stripped and washed ; it is 
 too fatiguing. It must of coui'se be kept sweet and 
 clean, which can be done gently, piece by piece. A 
 very scientific, successful man-midwife in South- 
 Brooklyn will not allow a new-born infant to be 
 washed aruj dressed till it is twenty-four hours old
 
 152 CARE OF CHILDREN. 
 
 He oils it well and rolls it in warm, soft wraps, with 
 its face only open, puts it to the breast, and orders 
 it to be kept warm and quiet till the second day, 
 when, if the child is quite vigorous, he allows it to 
 be dressed and handled as the nurse desires; if not 
 quite strong and rested, he sometimes will not sul)- 
 ject it to dressing till it is a week old. I have al- 
 ways saved seven months' babies in this way, rolling 
 them in soft linen or silk with cotton wool to keep 
 them warm ; wrapping the diaper under the arm- 
 pits, and a soft covering over the arms. After the 
 first week, they may be dressed and undressed night 
 and morning. Be careful never to wash a child im- 
 mediately after feeding it, as digestion requires the 
 entire nerve force, which will be called off to react 
 in the skin, leaving the food undigested, causing 
 colic and severe cramps sometimes sudden death. 
 Always wet the head first in giving a full bath, it 
 will prevent the congestion of the brain, and soothe 
 the child remarkably. Bathe just before feeding or 
 two hours after. If properly administered, a soft, 
 warm-water bath, after oiling, is very refreshing 
 and strengthening. 
 
 There are three rules to be observed in dress : 
 The first, equal warmth ; second, without ligature ; 
 third, as light as possible, consistent with warmth, 
 and the weight suspended from the shoulders. A 
 distinguished physician of Paris declared, just be 
 fore his death. "I believe that during the twenty
 
 CAKE OF CHILDREN. 153 
 
 ill years tliat I have practiced my profession in this 
 city, twenty thousand children have been borne to 
 the cemeteries, a sacrifice to the absurd custom of 
 naked arms." 
 
 Dr. Warren says, "Boston sacrifices five hundred 
 babies every year by not clothing their arms." 
 
 The upper and lower extremities require as much 
 covering as any other part of the body, if not more, 
 since the blood is not so freely circulated in the ex- 
 tremities as in the body. The absurdity of loose, 
 flowing sleeves and wide-spread skirts worn in our 
 Changeable climate hardly needs be discussed. In 
 our changeable climate, where the thermometer va- 
 ries many degrees, not only from day to day, but in 
 different hours of the same day, while the dress of a 
 child should not be at all cumbersome, it should be 
 sufficiently warm to preserve equal temperature to 
 sensitive parts of the body, even upon the warmest 
 days. Short flannel bands should be worn loosely 
 with broad tape shoulder-straps or waist, for the 
 first two years or even three, over the abdomen, for 
 here are located the viscera most affected by diseases 
 which increase summer mortality. A strip of soft 
 muslin, linen, or white silk, can be suspended ovei 
 the spine and kidneys, if the flannel seems to irn 
 tate. Secondly, all ligatures are to be avoided, es- 
 pecially around the tender and expansible bcny 
 structures, as the ribs and pelvis. I have seen in 
 pont-niortera the lower lobe of the right lung vf a
 
 154 CARE OF CHILDREN. 
 
 babe fi /c months old, dying suddenly, complete!} 
 solid or hepatized, in consequence of being pinned 
 too tightly. The young mother in her ignorance 
 thought that as her child was a little girl, she must 
 shape her waist in infancy. She frankly confessed 
 it. Again, by drawing tLo diaper tightly around 
 the hips of little girls, they become deformed, and 
 often so contracted that in womanhood child-bear- 
 ing is made difficult if not quite impossible. Nor 
 should long, trailing dresses, that like chain and 
 ball fetter the free movements of the limbs of the 
 child, be tolerated, though they be wickedly im- 
 posed by the fashion of the day. The form of 
 the trunk in boys and girls is precisely alike at 
 birth, and not until the absurd ligatures and weigh 
 ty skirts, bare neck, arms, and legs, make the diffe- 
 rence, do we see much, if any, difference in health 
 and vitality. 1 am obliged to record the fact, draw n 
 from my own observation while abroad, that Euro-- 
 pean women are more sensible in the dress of their 
 children than are our American women, who often 
 run to extremes of vanity and cruel hccdlessness or 
 ignorance in this respect. In Paris, in London, and 
 other European cities, I saw great numbers of little 
 children dressed in high-necked dresses, low enough 
 to cover their ankles, and long sleeves, looking sweet, 
 comfortable, and happy. In the Foundling Hospi- 
 tals, dear, rosy little babies, cunningly dressed like 
 lit tie women, were carried about in the arms of their
 
 CARE OF CHILDREN. 155 
 
 nurses How different the picture and t'ne resu it on 
 this side the Atlantic! Not long since, I saw a desir 
 little girl sitting on the cold stone step of a store on 
 one of the corners of Broadway, dressed in low-neck 
 ed dress, with almost no sleeves and bright ribbon 
 bows on the shoulders, short, stiff skirts, pretty shoes, 
 and short stockings. The day was blusteiy and cold ; 
 and as I was waiting for an omnibus, I saw the child 
 run up to a man on the corner who was selling fruits, 
 calling him father. He was dressed with close, wanr 
 over-coat and thick-soled boots. The contrast was 
 complete between the blue, shriveled, tiny little one 
 and this great, strong, comfortably-dressed father; 
 after a while she ran back again to her cold stone, 
 and, as I took the omnibus, I watched her with 
 prayerful, sad reflections of the unfitness of parents 
 for their trust, and renewed my resolve to do the 
 utmost in my power to change the destructive man- 
 ner of dress for little girls. 
 
 Ligatures obstruct the return of the venous blood 
 to the heart and lungs, which, being retained in the 
 system, causes diseases from congestion and inflam- 
 mation as well as impurities from carbon. Unless 
 the blood can be freely oxygenated in the lungs, it 
 is unfit for circulation, and gives no life to the body. 
 While the teeth and bony structures are forming, 
 the blood frequently lacks proper nutriment, which 
 should be supplied by such food as contains ihe 
 phosphates. Wheaten bran contains silex and phof
 
 156 CABE OP CrllfJ>ifl* 
 
 phorus, consequently a gr del made of i e.s\< / 1 rd r. a< 
 tliird pure milk, taken from the upper third after if 
 uas stood still two hours, with a very little, if any 
 dugar, will be a good diet ; or, if the child has the 
 breast, look well to the diet and condition of the 
 mother or nurse. 
 
 Children should enjoy the fresh air every day after 
 they are strong enough to be carried out, and the 
 weather is fine. 
 
 At all times give them the purest air to breathe ; 
 do not cover their faces while sleeping ; while 
 draughts or currents of air should be avoided, a 
 child's face should not be covered. At first, when 
 the hair is to be washed, or if it has no hair on its 
 head, it will be well to shield it with the corner of 
 the wrapping blanket or a soft handkerchief till it 
 dries. I am not an advocate of bare heads, yet caps 
 are not good on account of their closeness, and the 
 starch and embroidery with strings under the chin are 
 very objectionable. However, they must be worn, or 
 their substitute, while in the open air. For colic 01 
 restlessness give chamomile tincture, two or three 
 drops in a third of a goblet of water ; stir well, and 
 give one tea-spoonful every fifteen minutes till re- 
 lieved ; hold the bowl of the tea-spoon in a warm 
 hand after filling it for a few seconds till the chill 
 is taken oft 
 
 As the child needs nourishment and clothing to 
 e its life and growth, so does it need the
 
 CARE OF CHILDREN. 157 
 
 puro nourishment and stimulus of good air, and all 
 the sunshine it can get. Plants grow by these ; none 
 the less do our household plants , give them plenty 
 of room and chance for play and muscular activity 
 then. 
 
 How many children are rendered cripples for life 
 and become victims of spinal curvature by ignorant, 
 silly mothers keeping them imprisoned in high chairs 
 in babyhood, lest they should soil their beautiful 
 baby-clothes by creeping about on the floor the 
 paradise of babydom ! After play, in-doors or out, 
 should come rest, and usually every child, up to the 
 age of six years, should take a nap or lie down and 
 rest at least one hour before dinner; and in warm 
 weather, should be bathed each time immediately 
 after waking, care being taken to gently rub the 
 spine with the hand or soft towel to strengthen it 
 after the bath. 
 
 I must now speak of the effect of the mental emo- 
 tions on the milk of the nurse. It is a well-known 
 fact that a severe fit of anger will cause the milk to 
 give pain to the babe. All sudden shocks and un- 
 pleasant emotions should be carefully avoided by 
 those nursing from the breast. It is woman's 
 crowning glory to be a mother, and the world 
 should so regard it. To quote the words of one, 
 b ersclf a mother, whom the world will long grate- 
 fully remember as one of its noblest and best writers 
 and workers, recently deceased Charlotte I. Lozier,
 
 158 CARE OF CHILDREN. 
 
 M.D. : " If woman needs to be versod in all that 
 literature and the sciences can contribute to make 
 her an author or a teacher, then certainly she needs 
 it all when she attempts to inscribe the untouched 
 pages of an unfolding intellect, and teach those first 
 'essons in all sciences or truth which the child's 
 mind probes her own for as soon as it can ask ques- 
 tions." Then the health of the mind so much de- 
 pends on the structure and health of the body, of 
 which so much depends on the care of the mother. 
 It is said by good physiologists that the brains of 
 children are lender like soft wax, and will not 
 usually retain impressions till they are about seven 
 years old, and that the most efficient scholars are 
 those who have not been taught their alphabet till 
 after that age. I am certain that children should 
 not be forced to apply the memory ; still it may and 
 ought to be gently and quietly stored with useful 
 facts. Especially should the child be taught to 
 know truth from falsehood, to respect the rigLts of 
 others, and become subject to the laws of sympathy 
 and love. As the sculptor moulds the model of clay 
 for the statue by wetting it to soften it, so love 
 softens and moulds the developing child. 
 
 Quoting again words from the pen of the last- 
 named author: "If a woman needs culture and ex- 
 pansion, both of her perceptions and conceptions of 
 the beautiful, in order to produce a grand poem or 
 painting or sculpture, or tc conceive noble measures
 
 CARE OF CHILDREN. 159 
 
 for the relief of the suffering of others, then does 
 she also need all these for that highest of all her 
 efforts, when it seems as if every fibre of her being 
 was put upon the stretch to do its share in the 
 grand donation to love and to humanity of a 
 child.'
 
 A LIST 
 
 
 
 BOOKS ON HEALTH FOR WOMEN. 
 
 1. Talks to My Patients. Mrs. R. B. Gleason, M.D. .$1 51 
 8. Heiald of Health. Monthly. M. L. Holbrook, 
 M.D., Editor. $2 a year. 
 
 3. Sexual Physiology. Trail 2 00 
 
 4. Parturition without Pain. Edited by M. L. Hol- 
 
 brook, M.D 1 00 
 
 5. The Care of Children. C. S. Lozier, M. D 2" 
 
 6. The Management of Infancy. Combe 1 50 
 
 7. Notes on Nursery. Miss Nightingale 1 00 
 
 8. The Teeth, and how to save them. Meredith 1 25 
 
 9. Why not ? Storer 1 00 
 
 10. Insanity in Women. Storer 1 50 
 
 1 1. The Transmission of Life. Naphy 2 00 
 
 12. Physical Life of Woman. Naphy 2 00 
 
 13. Human Beauty. Brinton and Naphy 2 00 
 
 14. Hereditary Genius. Galton 2 25 
 
 15. Our Girls. Dr. Dio Lewis 1 50 
 
 16. Dalton's Physiology 1 50 
 
 1 7. Huxley's Physiology 1 50 
 
 18. Dress and Care of the Feet 1 50 
 
 19. Midwifery and Diseases of Women. Shew 1 75 
 
 20. Management of Children. Shew 1 75 
 
 21. Body and Mind. Maudsley 1 75 
 
 22. Physical Perfection. Jaques 1 50 
 
 23. Uterine Diseases. Trail 3 00 
 
 24. The Parents' G uide. Pendleton 1 50 
 
 25. Hydropathic Cook-Book. Trail 1 50 
 
 2(5. Hygienic Cook-Book 30 
 
 27. Advice to a Wife on the Management of her own 
 
 Health 1 25 
 
 28. Woman's Home Book of Health. Wilson ..... . 1 2-1 
 
 89 A Treatise on the Diseases of Female*. W P. 
 
 Deweea.M.D . . 8
 
 
 
 
 
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 Parturition vithout pain. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE 
 
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