THE PERILS OF CHILDHOOD.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4964, 6 December 1884, Page 4

THE PERILS OF CHILDHOOD.

■ A Liverpool philanthropist has kindly forwarded to us (Globe) a large, printed I card showing Bt a glance the causes and results of divers acts of cruelty to children "by nurses and others." The intention of the author seems to be to obtain public help in preventing these inhumanities, and we have great pleasure in lending him our assistance to a limited extent. "We find, then, that " careless washing of the face" causes snuffles, and that if soap be allowed to go into the eyes, blindness, styes, and inflammation are almost sure to result. Much more terrible, however, are the consequences of dragging children by the arm; not to speak of the distension of their pectoral muscles, the victim will surely develop heart disease.S.Vitus'danco, and inflammation, of the lungs. That common practice on the part of nursemaids, the jolting of perambulators, should be ftjterniy suppressed, if parents do not wish iheir ohilden to have fits and curved spines. Smacking should not be allowed on any account, paralysis being one of its consequences, and hydrocephalus will be likely io supervene should children be " overawed." For a nurse to quit her sweet cbargefor a second or two while she speaks to a friend is a deadly sin; it leads to " perambulators being blown over and the child being frightened by a mastiff dog." Finally, look to it that the nurse's knees are not sloping when she has a baby on her lap. When she so far forgets her duty, it "makes the infant feel as if slipping off a precipice." We can only wonder, in presence " of these awful wrongs, that any English children ever reach maturity.