The workes of that famous chirurgion Ambrose Parey translated out of Latin and compared with the French. by Tho: Johnson. Whereunto are added three tractates our of Adrianus Spigelius of the veines, arteries, & nerves, with large figures. Also a table of the bookes and chapters.

CHAP. XXII. What diet the Nurse ought to use, and in what situation she ought to place the infant in the Cradle.

BOth in eating, drinking, sleeping, watching, exercising and resting, the Nurses diet must be divers, according as the nature of the childe both in habit and temperature shall be: as for example, if the childe be altogether of a more hot blood, the Nurse both in feeding and ordering herself ought to follow a cooling diet. In general let her eat meats of good juice, mo∣derate in quantity and quality, let her live in a pure and clear air, let her abstain from all spi∣ces, and all salted and spiced meats, and all sharp things, wine, especially that which is not allay∣ed or mixed with water, and carnal copulation with a man; let her avoid all perturbations of the minde, but anger especially; let her use moderate exercise,* 1.1 unless it be the exercise of her armes and upper parts, rather then the leggs and lower parts, whereby the greater attraction of the blood, that must be turned into milk, may be made towards the dugs. Let her place her childe so in the Cradle that his head may be higher then all the body, that so the excremental humors may be the better sent from the brain unto the passages that are beneath it. Let her swathe it so as the neck and all the back-bone may be strait and equal. As long as the childe sucketh, and is not fed with stronger meat, it is better to lay him alway on his back, then any other way, for the back is as it were the keel in a ship, the ground-work and foundation of all the whole body, whereon the infant may safely and easily rest. But if he lie o•• the side, it were danger left that the bones of the ribs being soft and tender, not strong enough, and united with stack bands, should bow under the weight of the rest, and so wax crooked, whereby the infant might become crook-backed. But when he beginneth to breed teeth, and to be fed with more strong meat, and also the bones and connexions of them begin to wax more firm and hard, he must be laved one while on this side, another while on that, and now and then also on his back. And the more he grow∣eth, the more let him be accustomed to lye on his sides; and as he lyeth in the Cradle, let him be turned unto that place whereat the light commeth in, lest that otherwise he may be come pur-blinde, for the eye of its own nature is bright and light-some, and therefore alwayes desireth the light, and abhorreth darkness; for all things are most delighted with their like, and shun their contraries. Therefore unless the light comes directly into the childes face, he turneth himself every way being very sorrowful, and striveth to turn his head and eyes that he may have the light; and that often turning and rowling of his eyes at length groweth into a custome that cannot be left: and so it commeth to pass that the infant doth either become pur-blinde,* 1.2 if he set his eyes stedfastly on one thing, or else his eyes do become trembling, alwayes turning and unstable, if he cast his eyes on many things that are round about him: which is the reason that Nurses, being taught by experience, cause over the head of the childe lying in the Cadle, an arch or vault of Wickers covered with cloth to be made, thereby to restrain, direct, and establish the uncertain and wandering motions of the childes eyes.

If the Nurse be squint-eyed, she cannot look upon the childe but side-wayes, whereof it com∣eth to pass that the childe being moist, tender, flexible, and prone to any thing with his body, and

so likewise with his eye, by a long and daily custom unto his Nurses sight, doth soon take the like custom to look after that sort also, which afterwards he cannot leave or alter. For those evill things that we learn in our youth, do stick firmly by us; but the good qualities are easily chan∣ged into wo••se. In the eyes of those that are squint-eyed, those two muscles which do draw the eyes to the greater or lesser corner, are chiefly or more frequently moved. Therefore either of these being confirmed in their turning aside by long use, as the exercise of their proper office in∣creaseth the strength, soon overcomes the contrary or withstanding muscles, called the Antago∣nists, and brings them into their subjection, so that, will they, ••ill they, they bring the eye un∣to this o•• that ••orner as they hit.* 1.3 So children become left-handed, when they permit their right hand to languish with idleness and sluggishness, and strengthen their left hand with continual use and motion to do every action therewithal, and so bring by the exercise thereof more nutriment unto that part. But if men (as some affirm) being of ripe years, and in their full growth, by daily society and company of those that are lame and halt do also halt, not minding so to do, but it commeth against their wills, and when they think nothing thereof, why should not the like happen in children, whose soft and tender substance is as flexible and pliant as wax unto e∣very impression? Moreover, children, as they become lame and crook-backt, so do they also be∣come squint-eyed by the hereditary default of their parents.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Anger ••reatly hu teth the Nurse. The exercise of the arms is best for the Nurse. How the childe should be pla∣ced in the Crad••e.
• * 1.2

  Why an arch of wickers must be made over the childes head lying in the Cradle. Why a squint-eyed Nurse causeth the childe to be squint eyed.
• * 1.3

  How children become left-handed.