Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/75

 no surprise can be felt at the immense disturbance and the consequent suffering and danger frequently experienced by children while cutting their first set of teeth.

The complaints or the diseases induced by dentition are numberless, affecting almost every organ of the body,—the brain, occasioning convulsions, water on the brain, etc.; the lungs, producing congestion, inflammation, cough, etc; the stomach, exciting sickness, flatulence, acidity, etc.; the bowels, inducing griping, at one time costiveness, and at another time purging; the skin, causing "breakings-out."

To prevent these diseases, means ought to be used to invigorate a child's constitution by plain, wholesome food, as recommended under the article of diet; by exercise and fresh air; by allowing him, weather permitting, to be out of doors a great part of every day; by lancing the gums when they get red, hot, and swollen; by attention to the bowels, and if he suffer more than usual, by keeping them rather in a relaxed state by any simple aperient, such as either castor oil or magnesia and rhubarb, etc.; and, let me add, by attention to his temper. Many children are made feverish and ill by petting and spoiling them. On this subject I cannot do better than refer you to an excellent little work entitled Abbott's Mother at Home, wherein the author proves the great importance of early training. The young of animals seldom suffer from cutting their teeth—and what is the reason? Because they live in the open air and take plenty of exercise, while children are frequently cooped up in close rooms and are not allowed the free use of their limbs. The value of fresh air is well exemplified in the Registrar-General's Report for 1843: he says that in 1,000,000 deaths from all diseases, 616 occur in the town from teething, while 120 only take place in the country from the same cause.