Concord Register

From the Boston Medical Intelligencer.

This is the season of infantile diseases, and parents cannot be too kind to those who are unwell, nor too careful in watching those who are in health. The mortality which at times prevails among, and seems exclusively confined to, young children, attended, ordinarily, with an affection of the bowels, oftener arises from inattention to the quantity of their food, than from the quality. In the autumnal months, they are continually hankering for those delicious fruits which are now so successfully cultivated, and brought within the reach of the poor as well as the rich, and which—though beneficial if rightly employed—from being permitted a too free and indiscriminate use, derange the functions of the digestive organs, and totally change the character of the secretions: dysentery, beside numerous other maladies, are the immediate results. It is easier to prevent, than to cure diseases; and those, therefore, who are wise, will rather take precaution than medicine.

We notice, with regret, that persons predisposed to a consumptive habit, as the season advances, have considerable irritation at the lungs, and a dry cough, accompanied with a quantity of phlegm after rising in the morning, should warn them of the necessity of being up with the sun, and retiring to bed before the night is half exhausted. Instead of being confined to the house, women and children should have daily walks or rides in the open air, however feeble they may be, if they have strength enough for exercise. The evenings are now beginning to be damp and chill, houses should still be freely ventilated through the day, and persons labouring under any inflammatory affection of the lungs whatever, should moreover be exceedingly particular not to lodge in small, confined apartments. Inattention to this simple circumstance, has undoubtedly hastened the dissolution of many. Good air makes good constitutions.

We recollect, that the bills of mortality, in past years, during the fall and winter months, have exhibited an astonishing catalogue of deaths among young ladies: and while they are the dupes of fashions which discard the use of warm and comfortable clothing, they will be unwilling to hearken to any advice which is at war with gauze and muslins. Woman is a tender plant at best, and should be nurtured with the utmost caution: those men who love their wives and daughters as they should be loved, will always have an eye to their exercise and dress.