Australian Tales - Setis

morning, for I tartly remarked, ‘You do not seem to want patients,
Doctor Dollop.’
“ ‘That is quite a mistake, my dear Mr. Wobble,’ replied the doctor
with another bland smile. ‘I assure you I want patients much more
frequently than patients really want me. But pray sit down, sir, and let us
have a little quiet chat. Your infant is in no immediate want of my
services, so make you mind easy about that; and if you can spare half-anhour
I will give you a few hints which may be useful to you as a father,
and perhaps spare you and your good wife much unnecessary anxiety in
future, and your infant much discomfort too. Will you take the arm-chair,
sir?’
“So I sat down, and the doctor gave me some advice, which certainly
saved me a vast deal of worry afterwards, and perhaps saved my infant
from having unlimited doses of physic poured down its little throat, to
half poison it, and make it grow up as sour as native currants. Some of
his hints may be useful to you, Mr. Boomerang, if you should ever have
any ‘little strangers’ in your establishment.
“After advising me to accustom my child to a cold bath morning and
evening; to abstain from administering narcotics, or medicines of any
kind except under professional advice; to avoid coddling in its
multitudinous forms; and to allow it plenty of pure fresh air, Doctor
Dollop further remarked —
“ ‘With regard to the frequent cries of your child, Mr. Wobble, it is not
right for you to draw an unfavourable inference from them; for in most
instances their cries imply the effort which children make to exercise the
organs of respiration. Nature has wisely ordained that by these very
efforts the power and utility of functions so essential to life should be
developed. Hence it follows, that those over-anxious parents who always
endeavour to prevent infants from crying, do them a material injury; for
by such imprudent management their children seldom acquire a perfect
form of the breast, while the foundation is laid in the pectoral vessels for
obstructions and other diseases. In the first period of life such exertions
are almost the only exercise of the infant; hence it is improper to
consider every noise that it makes as a claim upon our assistance, and to
intrude either food or drink with a view to satisfy its supposed wants.
There are instances, however, in which the loud complaints of infants
deserve our attention. Thus, if their cries be unusually violent and long
continued, we may conclude that they are troubled with colic pains. If on
such occasions they move their arms and hands repeatedly towards the
face, painful teething may account for the cause. In such, and in many
other symptoms, remedial measures may be called for. But, depend upon
it, Mr. Wobble, that in general, the less you try to assist nature the better;
for we learn from daily experience that children who have been the least
indulged thrive much better, unfold all their faculties quicker, and