the armpits and groins, and so swathe it;
then wrap it up warm in a bed with blankets, which there is scarcely any
woman so ignorant but knows well enough how to do; only let me give
them this caution, that they swathe not the child too tightly in its
blankets, especially about the breast and stomach, that it may breathe
the more freely, and not be forced to vomit up the milk it sucks,
because the stomach cannot be sufficiently distended to contain it;
therefore let its arms and legs be wrapped in its bed, stretched and
straight and swathed to keep them so, viz., the arms along its sides,
and its legs equally both together with a little of the bed between
them, that they may not be galled by rubbing each other; then let the
head be kept steady and straight, with a stay fastened each side of the
blanket, and then wrap the child up in a mantle and blankets to keep it
warm. Let none think this swathing of the infant is needless to set
down, for it is necessary it should be thus swaddled, to give its little
body a straight figure, which is most proper and decent for a man, and
to accustom him to keep upon his feet, who otherwise would go upon all
fours, as most animals do.

* * * * *

CHAPTER IX

SECTION I.--_Of Gripes and Pains in the, Bellies of Young Children._

This I mention first, as it is often the first and most common distemper
which happens to little infants, after their birth; many children being
so troubled therewith, that it causes them to cry day and night and at
last die of it. The cause of it for the most part comes from the sudden
change of nourishment, for having always received it from the umbilical
vessel whilst in the mother's womb, they come on a sudden not only to
change the manner of receiving it, but the nature and quality of what
they received, as soon as they are born; for instead of purified blood
only, which was conveyed to them by means of the umbilical vein, they
are now obliged to be nourished by their mother's milk, which they suck
with their mouths, and from which are engendered many excrements,
causing gripes and pains; and not only because it is not so pure as the
blood with which it was nourished in the womb, but because the stomach
and the intestines cannot make a good digestion, being unaccustomed to
it. It is sometimes caused also by a rough phlegm, and sometimes by
worms; for physicians affirm that worms have been bred in children even
in th