The compleat midwife's practice enlarged in the most weighty and high concernments of the birth of man containing a perfect directory or rules for midwives and nurses : as also a guide for women in their conception, bearing and nursing of children from the experience of our English authors, viz., Sir Theodore Mayern, Dr. Chamberlain, Mr. Nich. Culpeper ... : with instructions of the Queen of France's midwife to her daughter ... / by John Pechey ... ; the whole illustrated with copper plates.

CHAP. VII. What means are to be used for preserving the Childrens wit, after they are formed.

MAN is compounded of a substance so subject to alteration and corruption, that at the same in∣stant in which he begins to be formed, he also begins to fade and decline; whereupon Nature hath provided, that in mans body there should be four natural facul∣ties: Attractive, Retentive, Concoctive, and Expul∣sive; the first, concocting and altering the aliments which we eat, return to repair the substance that was lost, each succeeding in his place; So that it little a∣vaileth to have ingendered a Child of the perfectest Seed, if we make no choice of the meats which after∣wards we feed upon: For the Creation being finished, there remaineth not for the creature any part of the substance whereof it was composed. True it is, that the first Seed, if it be well concocted, possesseth such vertue, that digesting, and altering the meats, it ma∣keth them (though bad and gross of themselves) to turn to its own good temperature and substance; but yet we may so far forth use contrary meats, as the creature shall lose those good qualities which it receiveth from the seed whereof it was made; therefore Plato said, that one of the things which most brought mans wit and his manners to ruine, was, his evil bringing up in diet: For which cause, he counselled that we should give children delicate meats and drinks, and of good temperature, that, as they grow up, they may know to abandon evil, and embrace good; the reason whereof is very clear: For, since at the beginning the brain was made of delicate seed, and that this member is every day impairing and consuming, and is to be repaired with meats which we eat; it followeth certain∣ly,

that by using such meats as are gross, and of evil temperature, the brains will become of the same na∣ture: Therefore it will not suffice that the Child is born of good seed; but also that the meat which he eateth after he is born, be indued with the same qua∣lities.

The ancient Greeks were very curious in this parti∣cular; Galen, and other Greek Physicians, prescribed to those parents who were desirous of begetting wise children, to eat much Goats milk boyled, for about seven or eight days before Copulation; this meat being of a moderate substance, the heat exceeding not the cold, nor the moist the dry. The Greeks also used to extract out of the milk, the Cheese and Whey, as be∣ing the grosser parts of the Milk, and left the butter; which being of a more spairy substance, they gave their Children, mingling it with Honey. They also gave them Cracknels of white bread, of very delicate water, with Honey, and a little Salt. But yet, in this way of regiment and ordering of the diet, there ariseth one great Inconvenience; namely, that children using such kind of delicate meats, will not enjoy strength sufficient to resist the injuries of the Air, or other occasions which use to breed Maladies: And so by endeavouring that our Children may become wise, we shall cause them to become unhealthful, and short-liv'd; Therefore it is to be considered, how things may be so ordered, that the advancing of Childrens wit by their diet and education, may not prove incon∣sistent with the preservation of their health and strength; which may be easily effected, if Parents will put in pra∣ctice these Rules and Precepts which I shall prescribe. Hypocrates takes notice of eight things which make the flesh plump and fat: The first is, to be merry, and en∣joy content and ease of heart; the second, to sleep

much; the third, to lie in a soft bed; the fourth, to fare well; the fifth, to be well furnished and apparelled; the sixth, to ride much on horseback; the seventh, to have ones will, and not be crossed in any thing; the eighth, to be much conversant in all kind of Plays and pastimes, that yield contentment and delight. That this manner of life produceth the aforesaid effect, is most true; but is likewise true, that it causeth the seed to be moist, and that the children engendred of that Seed, must also abound with superfluous moisture, which both for the production of Wit, and the preservation of health, ought to be dried up; for as much as this qua∣lity stifleth the operations of the rational soul, and also occasioneth sickness and short life: So that it appears, that a good wit, and a sound body, arise from one and the same quality, namely, dryness; whence it is to be observed, that the same rules which we are to lay down for the making Children wise, will also be effectual for the making of them healthy and long lived.

First, it behoveth for those Children that are born of delicious Parents, whose constitution must therefore necessarily consist of more cold and moist than is con∣venient, to be washed as soon as they are born with hot salt water, which, according to the opinion of all Physitians, soaketh and drieth up the flesh, strength∣neth the Nerves, and by consuming the superfluous moisture of the brain, increaseth the wit, and freeth him from many dangerous Diseases; whereas a Bath of hot water that is fresh, breeds (as Hypocrates affirmeth) five inconveniences; namely, the effeminating of the flesh, weakness of the sinews, dulness of the spirits, fluxes of the blood, and a nauseating in the stomach: But those that are born with excessive dryness, are to be bathed in hot fresh water, that the extremity of their temper may be corrected by a contrary quality. Now the rea∣son

why hot salt water is available for those that are over moist, is, because it stoppeth the pores of the skin, and of two extreams, it is more conducing to health to have a skin hard and somewhat close, than thin and open.

The second thing requisite to be performed when the Child is new born, is to make him acquainted with the winds, and with change of air, and not to keep him lockt up in a Chamber, which much enfeebleth the strength, and wasteth the spirits; nothing being so ad∣vantageous to a healthful kind of living, as to expose ones self to all kind of winds and weathers, hot, moist, cold and dry; it is no wonder therefore that Shepherds of all men living enjoy the soundest health, since they accustom themselves to all the several qualities of the Air, and their nature is dismayed at nothing; where∣as on the contrary we find that those men that give themselves to live deliciously, and to beware lest the Sun, the Wind, the Evening, or the Cold, offend them, are within a small time dispatched with a Post-Letter to another World. So far were the ancient Germans from nicety in this point, that they use to dip their Children as soon as born, in a cold River.

The third thing necessary to be performed, is to seek out a young Nurse of temperature hot and dry, with which two qualities the much cold and moist will be corrected, which the Infant brought from his Mo∣thers Womb; she should be innur'd to hardness and want, to lye on the bare ground, to eat little, and to go poorly clad in wet, drought, and heat, such a one will yield a firm milk, as being acquainted with the alterations of the air, and the Child being brought up by her, will come to enjoy a great firmness of body. The course then which is to be observed with the Nurse, is to take her into the House about four or five Months before the Childs birth, and to give her the same sorts

of meat to feed on, which the Mother useth to eat, that she may have time to consume the blood and bad humors, which she hath gathered by the harmful meats she used before, and also to the end that the Child may suck the like milk with that which relieved it in the Mothers belly, or at least made of the same meats.

The fourth thing requisite to be observed, is not to accustom the Child to sleep in a soft bed, or to keep it over-warm in apparel, or give it too much meat, which are things that fatten and enlarge the Flesh; whereas the restraint of them diminisheth and dries it up, which driness increaseth wit, and much availeth to∣ward long life, According to this Rule which I have prescribed, was He, who of all men living that ever the World had, was the wisest brought up; for as soon as he was born, he began to be inur'd to cold and other alterations of the air; his first bed was the Earth, his apparel coarse; and a few days after, they went with him to Aegypt, a place very hot, and the meat they gave him, was that which I have already mentioned to have been used by the ancient Greeks. Whereupon it is that the Prophet Esay saith, He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to eschew evil, and chuse the good: For though he was very God, yet being also per∣fect Man, he omitted not to make use of the same na∣tural remedies as were used by the rest of the sons of men.

Thus we have shown what the qualities are, which the Brain ought to have, and what the substance; ha∣ving proved according to the opinion of Heraclitus, that driness maketh the wisest soul; and that by age from the day of our birth, 'till that of our death, we still acquire more and more dryness, and by consequence more knowledge. We have also proved, that the sub∣tile and delicate parts of the Brain are corrected by what we eat; for those that always feed upon Beef and Pork, must of necessity have a Brain so gross and of such evil

temperature, that the reasonable soul cannot be so ca∣pable of eschewing evil, or adhering to good.