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No; unless it be a few ripe strawberries or raspberries, or a roasted apple, or the juice of five or six grapes—taking care that he does not swallow either the seeds or the skin—or the insides of ripe gooseberries, or an orange. Such fruits, if the bowels be in a costive state, will be particularly useful.

All stone fruits, raw apples, or pears ought to be carefully avoided, as they not only disorder the stomach and the bowels—causing convulsions, gripings, etc.—but they have the effect of weakening the bowels, and thus of engendering worms.

69. Is a child, during teething, more subject to disease, and if so, to what complaints, and in what manner may they be prevented?

The teeth are a fruitful source of suffering and of disease, and are with truth styled “our first and our last plagues.” Dentition is the most important period of a child’s life, and is the exciting cause of many infantile diseases; during this period, therefore, he requires constant and careful watching. When we consider how the teeth elongate and enlarge in his gums, pressing on the nerves and on the surrounding parts, and thus how frequently they produce pain, irritation, and inflammation; when we further contemplate what sympathy there is in the nervous system, and how susceptible the young are to pain, no surprise can be felt at the immense disturbance and the consequent suffering and danger frequently experienced by children while cutting their first set of teeth.