Toast-
and-water, if the child prefer it, which is rendered slightly more
nutritive than the more simple fluid. The water employed in its
preparation, however, must be at a boiling temperature, and it ought to
be drunk as soon as it has sufficiently cooled; for by being kept, it
acquires a mawkish and unpleasant flavour.
WINE, BEER, etc.--The practice of giving wine, or, indeed, any
stimulant, to a healthy child, is highly reprehensible; it ought never
to be given but medicinally.
The circulation in infancy and childhood is not only more rapid than
in the adult, but easily excited to greater vehemence of action; the
nervous system, too, is so susceptible, that the slightest causes of
irritation produce strong and powerful impressions: the result in
either case is diseased action in the frame, productive of fever,
convulsions, etc.; wine, accordingly, is detrimental to children.
An experiment made by Dr. Hunter upon two of his children illustrates,
in a striking manner, the pernicious effects of even a small portion of
intoxicating liquors in persons of this tender age. To one of the
children he gave, every day after dinner, a full glass of sherry: the
child was five years of age, and unaccustomed to the use of wine. To
the other child, of nearly the same age, and equally unused to wine, he
gave an orange.
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