Yet this is obviously one of the first steps, every, where, which philanthropy demands; to say nothing of the demands of christianity.  It is the first step for the physician, the first step for the educator, the first step for the parent, and above all, the mother.  Nay; more—­we must not suppress so great and important a truth—­it is the first step for the legislator and the minister.  What sense is there in continuing, century after century, and age after age, to expend all our efforts in merely mending the diseased half of mankind, when those same efforts are amply sufficient, if early and properly applied, not only to continue the lives of the whole, but to make them whole beings, instead of passing through life mere fragments of humanity?

But I must not forget that this is merely a small manual, not intended for those who make it their profession to teach the laws of God and man, but simply for young mothers.  For the sake of erring humanity, would that I could, but for one moment, divest myself of the idea, that in writing for the young mother I am not writing for legislators and ministers!  Would that I could banish from my mind the deep conviction that the mother is everywhere far more the law-giver to her infant—­far more the arbiter of the present and eternal destiny of her child—­than he who is more commonly regarded as such.

Every mother owes it, not only to herself—­for on this part she is not wholly forgetful—­but to her offspring, to abstain, during the period of nursing at least, from all causes which tend to produce a feverish state of her fluids.  Among these are every form of premature exertion, whether in sitting up, laboring, conversing, or even thinking.  It is of very great importance that both the body and the mind should be kept quiet; and the more so, the better.

Among the particular causes of fever to the young mother, Dr. Dewees enumerates spirits, wine, and other fermented liquors, a room too much heated, closed curtains, confined air, too much exposure, and too much company; and during the early period of confinement, broths and animal food.

There is nothing which he insists on more strongly, than the importance of fresh air.  Indeed, the practice of confining a nursing woman in a space scarcely six feet square, and excluding the air surrounding her by curtains and closed windows, and subjecting her to the necessity of breathing twenty times the air that has already been as often discharged, filled with poison, from her lungs, is not too strongly reprobated by Dr. Dewees, or anybody else.  But I have spoken of these things in the chapter which treats on “The Nursery.”  I would only observe, on this point, that if I were asked what one thing is most indispensable to the health of the nursing woman, I would reply, Fresh air; and if asked what were the second and third most important things, I would still repeat—­in imitation of the orator of old, in regard to another subject—­Fresh air, Fresh air.