Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/33

Rh : these children are said to be treated in a proper manner, in most respects; the consequence is, that during a term of twelve years, viz., from 1785 to 1797, only fourteen have died.

This mortality is chiefly observable among children, of whom more than one half die before they are two years and a half old. Children, as well as the young of all animals, bear want and hardships worse than adult persons, and full-grown brute animals. Infants, though their deaths be really occasioned by the above-mentioned causes, have nearly the same symptoms that occur in many chronic diseases; to which their deaths are frequently attributed.

The diseases which are the chief agents in this great mortality among infants, are fevers and the disorders of the stomach and bowels. The latter are so frequent among infants, that physicians, when called to them, almost always consider these as the seat of the complaint. The weaknesses or disorder of the bowels seem chiefly to be occasioned by the poor, watery, meagre, vegetable diet of the children and of their mothers. The latter, from the use of this diet, have their milk poor, and not sufficiently animalised. To produce good milk,