: A Book of Medical Discourses in Two Parts by Crumpler Rebecca Lee - Women Health and hygiene; Child care; Children Health and hygiene; Infants Health and hygiene; Infants Care

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CHAP. PAGE.

Introduction 1

Part Second. Miscellaneous Information 120

INTRODUCTION.

It may be well to state here that, having been reared by a kind aunt in Pennsylvania, whose usefulness with the sick was continually sought, I early conceived a liking for, and sought every opportunity to be in a position to relieve the sufferings of others. Later in life I devoted my time, when best I could, to nursing as a business, serving under different doctors for a period of eight years ; most of the time at my adopted home in Charlestown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. From these doctors I received letters commending me to the faculty of the New England Female Medical College, whence, four years afterward, I received the degree of Doctress of Medicine. I then practised in Boston, but desiring a larger scope for general information, I travelled toward the British Dominion. On my return, after the close of the Confederate War, my mind centred upon Richmond, the capital city of Virginia, as the proper field for real missionary work, and one that would present ample opportunities to become acquainted with the diseases of women and children.

During my stay there nearly every hour was improved in that sphere of labor. The last quarter of the year 1866, I was enabled, through the agency of the Bureau under Gen. Brown, to have access each day to a very large number of the indigent, and others of different classes, in a population of over 30,000 colored. At the close of my services in that city I returned to my former home, Boston, where I entered into the work with renewed vigor, practising outside, and receiving children in the house for treatment; regardless, in a measure, of remuneration. Although not now in a locality where my constant attendance is required, I do not fail to notice the various published records of the condition of the health of Boston and vicinity.

That woman should study the mechanism of the human structure to better enable her to protect life, before assuming the office of nurse, few will agree. But that good service has been performed by those who were entirely ignorant of it, every one must admit. In my own experience, there was much that to me was obscure, yet, strange to say, I never met with an accident. A kind Father directed every thought in behalf of the helpless.

I believe matrimony to be a divine institution; and that the results arising from a union of the sexes should be considered an important study for each party concerned. If we as intelligent beings sit still in this matter of physical security, premature decay must take the place of perfection. Since I have, with no small degree of diffidence, consented to submit my long-kept journal to the public in the form of a book, I desire to present the different subjects by the use of as few technical terms as possible; and to make my statements brief, simple, and comprehensive. Indeed I desire that my book shall be as a primary reader in the hands of every woman; and yet none the less suited to any who may be conversant with all branches of medical science. If women are permitted to read and reflect for themselves, it is hardly possible that they will say it is uninteresting to them, or that it should only be read by men.

In dealing with subjects that bring to mind thousands of premature mortalities, as, for instance, those from cholera infantum or pneumonia, I deem it expedient to speak only of what I know and to which I can testify. I have endeavored to give some domestic or ready palliative reliefs for the several cases described; thereby hoping to avoid the possibility of a remedy's being applied without an acquaintance with the character and phases of the complaint for which it is intended. There is no doubt that thousands of little ones annually die at our very doors, from diseases which could have been prevented, or cut short by timely aid. People do not wish to feel that death ensues through neglect on their part; indeed they speak of consumption, cholera infantum, and diphtheria, etc., as if sent by God to destroy our infants.

MEDICAL DISCOURSES.

After marriage, if medical aid is required by the wife, let it be sought in a direction that there will never be cause to regret. Some women are over anxious for a family, and by their nervous whims make themselves and those around them unhappy. But it is to be deplored that there is a much larger class of young women whose minds are dark on the subject of preservation of health, and who soon forget, if they ever thought of the liabilities of a married life. On taking cold or feeling languid or nauseated a physician must at once be sent for. It should be borne in mind that many women begin to show signs of pregnancy by cold, severe pain in the head, back, stomach, or various parts of the body.

Numbers begin and continue for months with severe cramp colic, and if remedies of a powerful nature are applied, the mischief may be alarming. Many of the teas, sweats, baths, and potions that are effective in relieving a cold will be wholly ineffective when pregnancy is certain. Therefore repeated trials but disturbs the nervous system of the mother, through which all things are transmitted to the living germ. In all cases of suppression of the monthly flow after marriage, a careful physician should be at once consulted, if there is any reason to doubt that it is caused by pregnancy. Suffice it to say that too frequent physicking and over-indulgence in intoxicating liquors and tobacco, will cause sickly diminutive offspring, to say nothing of premature births.

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