"ONE DAY'S JOURNAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 504, 2 September 1857, Page 3

"ONE DAY'S JOURNAL.

" I was about to begin with self-reproaches for not having noted, during its progress, the steps of an experiment so novel, and in its consequences so important; but the fact is, that I was not aware that I was making an experiment until the thing was done. Henceforward I shall record daily incidents which may serve to illustrate the case, and at an after-period methodically treat it. " this day (December 27, 1856) the outdoor labourers were engaged in. storing ice for the ice-house. This speaks for the severity of the cold during the night. I did not observe the thermometer. The child sleeps on the floor, on a travelling.rug folded in four, the room is without fire or carpet, and is generally washed daily. There is a large bow-window to the noitli. It is the coldest room in the house. He was put to bed at hall-past ten. He sleeps beside cur bed. He is without any clothes or covering whatever. Atone o'clock, being unable *o sleep, I lighted the candles to read, sitting up in the bed. I was so cold with [.three blankets that I had to put on a fur cloak. The child woke up, and made veliementappeals to be taken in. I took him in. When I was going to sleep myself, I told -him to goto bed. He moaned so bitterly that I apprehended that he feared the cold. To test him I got out of bed, and laid down on his rug (without clothes) ; he then would not remain a moment in the warm bed, but followed me to his pallet. He then composed himself to sleep in.his own fashion-— that is, lying like a frog—and I left him. When he came into bed I was obliged to put a blanket between us, for the bitter cold of his limbs; but every way that I could arrange the clothes led to no sign that he suffered from the cold or desired the heat. "To correct the frightful fits of crying he used to have, and for another failing which had of necessity to be put a stop to, I had to have recourse formerly to punishment by shaking him, slapping him, and dipping him into a trough of cold water v As his frame hardened under the action of cold, and very severe shampooing, punishment by these processes became impossible. Recently a very grave case had again occurred, when I had recourse to all these processes. I was narrating what I had done, and how I had failed, when I uttered the word ' shake.' he immediately raised his two arms^ and shook them* triumphantly with a roar of laughter. We could not believe that this was not some incidental impression; we tested him by asking what was done to him. He immediately repeated the gesture. " The treatment of this day will serve for all. He has two meals ; generally boiled rice, which is put'sin a napkin on the ground and he picks it up to the last grain. After that ■wheaten flour cake, with butter, and a cup of milk, which he drinks. He has milk alone twice in the day besides. The feeding of himself seemed to produce the greatest change in bis disposition. While eating his r\ce, he looks a different being ; there is at once a pride and an enjoyment of performance. He has the air cf an orator addressing an audience. " During the day he goes to sleep when he likes, merely lying down on the floor. I waken him repeatedly during his slumbers by calling to him. The second call is always sufficient, and it is in a low voice. He gets up and comes to me ; then I tell him to go back, and down he goes, and not a sound heard. The expression of his countenance is that of severe self-repression and control. "It was remarked by a lady to-day that he is not like a child, but. a small man; and the physician to the Lying-in-Hopital at Cork guessed his age between two and three. Another gentleman has just remarked that. he never knew the meaning of ' mar.-child ' until he had seen him. " The altitude he assumes in sleeping is that of the Mussulman making prostrations —on his knees, with his hands spread out. before him, which could not be if he suffered from fatigue; but his muscles are too hard for that. By this means lie concentrates the caloric in-the stomach, and so is indifferent to cold; however cold the limbs (and they get frightfully cold to the touch, and never numb, being, on the contrary, mottled red), the loins are always warm. " This is the first working-day since he has been in my hand that he has not been in the vapour bath. It is the .first word he has learnt to say, and he calls for it every morning. Yesterday he was in an hour and a half. He moans a little when the cold \Tater is put on him, but stops when told to do so. Hot water he will bear at a temperature that I could not endure. As I was i yesterday carrying him home through the "sleet and wind (which he enjoyed so much that he would not go in, bnt made me carry him about half-an-hour on the brow of the liill), we met some of the unfortunate wrap-ped-up children shivering with cold under all their tailor-stuff.

" There are three teeth breaking through the guns, but he gives none of the usual signs of teething. He had five teeth before, from which he suffered much ; a sixth has come through during the process, and we only knew of it by seeing it. He has his meals with us; although he has so Ions; to wait, he is subjected to the trial of seeing us eat first, but not a sound escapes him while waiting. " The problem he presents physiologically is this: a development of the nerves producing pleasurable sensations, and a corresponding deadening of thos« the contrary. I should rather say that he shows the existence of distinct sets of nerves for pleasure and pain. "The intensity of the enjoyment which he derives from contact with the skin is only equalled by the insensibility of the flesh. We have never known him. since his exposure to extreme cold, to cry from pain. My object is to combine extremes of temperature, so as to harden by the one and develop by the other. Last night the difference between his power of enjoyment and mine was brought home to me in a remarkable manner, by my suffering from the state of the surrounding atmosphere when he knew none, enlarging to an equal degree the pleasures derivable from atmospheric temperature. And. this is only the commencement of the process. When he is two years old he will be able to enjoy life, as dependent upon the surrounding atmosphere, in the opposite extremes of zone, where life is supportable, under ordinary circumstances, only by means of clothing. The necessity of clothing after a certain age will not interfere with the process, as, during the nigh f., when the temperature is lowest, and no caloric is evolved by action, the body can be exposed. If he were exposed to cold only, he might then suffer from heat, but he is equally armed against both. " The experiment, in vegard to temperature, includes that other experiment which has hitherto been the extreme point contemplated by innovators—the free admission of oxygen. It is not merely the affording scope to the skin to take life from the air, but the hardening of the muscles to increase life. Perhaps after all, the Bear-sarkers were no myth. Perhaps the energy of the Romans may be traced to the clothing or want of it, of the children recorded in the ceremony of the induction of the virile garb. In the tombs of their masters,the Estruscans, as in those of Asia Minor, children are represented absolutely naked until twelve years. We refer the characters of nations to climate, and forget clothing, by which we can get every climate. This child may be killed by a brickbat, but he has no more to fear from disease than a calf or a foal ; for this is life, according to nature, using the elements for health and strength which, when misused, are those of destruction ; and yet the experiment will be barren, for judgment cannot be conveyed by results. " December 28. —Last night he slept under clothes in the ordinary way. In the morning his colour was gone. Contrasted with the usual appearance, he was like a lantern without the light ; in fact, with the difference of the contour, he was like what he was before he was exposed to the air and cold. On two occasions of nights particularly cold, when he was in his naked state longer than usunl, the brilliancy of his colour, and the liveliness of his action was remarked by those who saw him. "In reference to the foregoing, the following extract, from a letter addressed to the father of the child by a gentleman in the medical profession, will be read with: interest: —' 1 concur with Dr. B. that if you were obliged to practise as a physician, you would be another Davy or Liebig. I am reminded of Abraham's submission and obedience to the Divine Will by your philanthropic spirit m experimenting upon your own child for the good of mankind. Your success is the greater reward. You have given much mutter for the consideration of medical men in the facts set forth. I can now understand the wise motive in the j custom of northern- nations among whom there is a vapour-bath in every house. Nurses know that children who, from their birth, get a daily cold bath are stronger and healthier than those who do not. Water, whether at a high or low temperature, gives a greater shock to sensibility than air. Many a tenderly-reared officer who succumbed to the inclemency of the weather in the huts before Sebastopol might have been livirio- now if his mother had acted more upon°your plan. Dr. Dods, an American, says, he who cannot reason is a fool; he ! who dares not is a coward ; he who will not is a bigot; but he who can, dares, and will reason is a man. But I say, that he who has confidence in his reasoning*, faith in himself, and courage to act upon his conchu sions. is a man of strong mind and noble soul, fearless and firm. You prove to be all

that, and more; you are prudent and cautious, for if the child should suffer from cold or croup, you have a ready remedy in a bath at 118 degrees.' Dr. M'Cormack, of Belfast, read a paper before the Edinburgh Medical Society, to show that tubercular diseases are caused solely by a vice of respiration, transpiration through the skin being a respiratory act."