1774

Publication of William Buchan’s Domestic Medicine; or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines ; With an appendix containing a dispensatory. For the use of private practitioners (London: Printed for W. Strahan, T. Cadell, J. Balfour, and W. Creech). Buchan linked appalling childhood mortality directly to parental ignorance or carelessness, including maternal dependence on wet nurses, while also holding physicians responsible, as they had “long neglected childhood ailments because they were ‘generally considered as the sole province of old women.’” On parents, especially mothers, fell the burden of preventive living, and he discussed bad influence at length, including: diseased parents, improper clothing, air, food and exercise, precocious schooling and employment; uncleanliness and hired nurses (Murphy, 41-42).