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Mrs Marivale Concerning her Son.

It gives me particular pleasure to
be able to give satisfaction to an anxious and feeling parent
and am therefore happy to find you pleased with the letter I
had the honour to send you and I shall now take all the pains
I can to give you what further instruction I can think may be
usefull and satisfying to you.

At the age your child is presently of I think your plan
of managing him is perfectly good. It is only when children
are a good deal advanced, when they are generally out of danger
of the disease which has been so fatal to your family and when
they are soon after to mix in the business of life that I think
it necessary to bring them by degrees to bear every accident of
weather. In their younger years it appears to me hazardous
to attempt to harden them very early but there is a measure
which I think highly usefull in enabling children to resist
Cold and which I think may be practised ↑in some degree↑ from the time of
their birth. This is cold bathing which I do not perceive you
have employed but if you will (↑shall↑) be pleased to follow the directions

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I am now to give you I shall answer for both the safety and
success of the practice.

You will pleasure take the water you are to employ al¬
ways from a spring or deep pit well and never from any brook
or river. The former is pretty nearly of the same temperature
at all times of the year the latter is constantly changing with
the season. Take ↑the↑ water always from ↑the↑ spring or well immedi¬
ately before it is to be used that its temperature may not be chan¬
ged by its being kept for any length of time in the house. Of
this water take exactly four quarts and immediately when
you are to use it put to it one quart of water fully boiling
This mixture will fell cool but in a very slight degree and
from (↑to↑) such a degree ↑only↑ as hardly any child will shrink from.
With this water or by a sponge dipt in it wash the childs
body all over, beginning at the head and going with the
quickly sponge quickly all over the rest of the body & limbs.
while the child stands in a little shallow tub that may re¬
↑ceive↑ the wet. This operation may at first be done very quickly but
afterwards more at leisure squeezing at first a large sponge full

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of water over the childs head and following it afterwards
over the rest of the body and filling the sponge again as may be
necessary. If five quarts of water do not seem enough more may
be employed observing always the same proportion of spring
and boiling water. With water so tempered let the child be
washed for seven or eight days following or at least till the
child is perfectly reconciled to the whole operation. If he shall
happen to shrink from it at first let it be brought on by degrees
by washing his head, neck, hands and feet only and accusto¬
ming him to be quite naked while that is done, it may be by
degrees extended over his whole body. When the child is thus
reconciled to it you may begin to withdraw a part of the
boiling water and by withdrawing a quarter of a pint of
the boiling water every second day you will bring him
insensibly in the course of a fortnight to bear the water
cold as it comes from the spring. When you have
brought matters this length you may either continue
to wash him in the manner above directed or if you can
reconcile the child to it you may immerge at once his
whole ↑body↑ in a proper vessel, taking care however before he is

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put into the water that his head and ↑neck be↑ washed all over with
the same water. This washing or bathing should be prac¬
tised every morning immediately after he is taken out of
bed providing only that he is not liable to any sweating in
the night and to have some moisture on his skin in the
morning, in which case he should not be washed or bathed
till he has been an hour out of bed and that his skin is
perfectly dry. This practice should be continued thoroug[h]
the winter as well as the summer and for many years
to come and I would advise you to set about it immediately
that it may be fully established before the winter comes
on tho I suppose the Devonshire Winter to be commonly
very mild. When you set about this business I beg you
may always work by exact measure and proceed slowly
as I have advised for such gradual proceeding not only ren¬
ders it absolutely safe but is also commonly necessary to re¬
concile the child to it very fully. I hope it is all that is necessary to put him
in a condition to resist cold that might otherwise affect him. It will give me
much pleasure to find that it has the desired effect. If there is a question that at
any ↑time↑ you would wish to put to me I beg you may do it and believe me to be with
great regard