He then remarks, "Is it not an astonishing fact that, though
on the treatment of offspring depend their lives or deaths and their
moral welfare or ruin, yet not one word of instruction on the treatment
of offspring is ever given, to those who will hereafter be parents?
Is it not monstrous that the fate of a new generation should be left
to the chances of unreasoning custom, or impulse, or fancy, joined
with the suggestions of ignorant nurses and the prejudiced counsel of
grandmothers?
"If a merchant should commence business without any knowledge of
arithmetic or book-keeping, we should exclaim at his folly and look
for disastrous consequences. Or if, without studying anatomy, a man
set up as a surgeon, we should wonder at his audacity and pity his
patients. But that parents should commence the difficult work of rearing
children without giving any attention to the principles, physical,
moral, or intellectual, which ought to guide them, excites neither
surprise at the actors nor pity for the victims."
"To tens of thousands that are killed add hundreds of thousands that
survive with feeble constitutions, and millions not so strong as they
should be; and you will have some idea of the curse inflicted on their
offspring, by parents ignorant of the laws of life.
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