Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Page 4

inattention to this advice has sometimes caused a gathering in the ear--a painful and
distressing complaint, and at other times it has produced deafness.
Directly after the infant is dried, all the parts that are at all likely to be chafed ought to be
well powdered. After he is well dried and powdered, the chest, the back, the bowels, and
the limbs should be gently rubbed, taking care not to expose him unnecessarily during
such friction.
He ought to be partially washed every evening, indeed it may be necessary to use a
sponge and a little warm water frequently during the day, namely, each time after the
bowels have been relieved. Cleanliness is one of the grand incentives to health, and
therefore cannot be too strongly insisted upon. If more attention were paid to this subject,
children would be more exempt from chafings, "breakings-out," and consequent suffering,
than they at present are. After the second month, if the babe be delicate, the addition of
two handfuls of table-salt to the water he is washed with in the morning will tend to brace
and strengthen him.
With regard to the best powder to dust an infant with, there is nothing better for general
use than starch--the old fashioned starch _made of wheaten flour_--reduced by means of
a pestle and mortar to a fine powder, or Violet Powder, which is nothing more than finely
powdered starch scented, and which may be procured of any respectable chemist. Some
others are in the habit of using white lead, but as this is a poison, it ought on no account
to be resorted to.
9. _If the parts about the groin and fundament be excoriated, what is then the best
application_?
After sponging the parts with tepid rain water, holding him over his tub, and allowing the

water from a well filled sponge to stream over the parts, and then drying them with a soft
napkin (not rubbing, but gently dabbing with the napkin), there is nothing better than
dusting the parts frequently with finely powdered Native Carbonate of Zinc-Calamine
Powder. The best way of using this powder is, tying up a little of it in a piece of muslin,
and then gently dabbing the parts with it.
Remember excoriations are generally owing to the want of water,--to the want of an
abundance of water. An infant who is every morning well soused and well swilled with
water seldom suffers either from excoriations, or from any other of the numerous skin
diseases. Cleanliness, then, is the grand preventative of, and the best remedy for
excoriations. Naaman the Syrian was ordered "to wash and be clean," and he was healed,
"and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child and he was clean." This was,
of course, a miracle; but how often does water, without any special intervention, act
miraculously both in preventing and in curing skin diseases!
An infant's clothes, napkins especially, ought never to be washed with soda; the washing
of napkins with soda is apt to produce excoriations and breakings-out. "As washerwomen
often deny that they use soda, it can be easily detected by simply soaking a clean white
napkin in fresh water and then tasting the water; if it be brackish and salt, soda has been
employed." [Footnote: Communicated by Sir Charles Locock to the Author.]
10. _Who is the proper person to wash and dress the babe_?
The monthly nurse, as long as she is in attendance; but afterwards the mother, unless she
should happen to have an experienced, sensible, thoughtful nurse, which, unfortunately,
is seldom the case. [Footnote: "The Princess of Wales might have been seen on Thursday
taking an airing in a brougham in Hyde Park with her baby--the future King of
England--on her lap, without a nurse, and accompanied only by Mrs Brace. The Princess
seems a very pattern of mothers, and it is whispered among the ladies of the Court that
every evening the mother of this young gentleman may be seen in a flannel dress, in
order that she may properly wash and put on baby's night clothes, and see him safely in
bed. It is a pretty subject for a picture."--Pall Mall Gazette.]
11. _What is the best kind of apron for a mother, or for a nurse, to wear, while washing
the infant_?
Flannel--a good, thick, soft flannel, usually called bathcoating--apron, made long and full,
and which of course ought to be well dried every time before it is used.
12. _Perhaps you will kindly recapitulate, and give me further advice on the subject of
the ablution of my babe_.
Let him by all means, then, as soon as the navel-string has separated from the body, be
bathed either in his tub, or in his bath, or in his large nursery-basin,