The National Library of Scotland records that there have been 61 publications of Dr. Buchan's works including a translation of "Domestic Medicine" into Spanish. (1818)

In the Preface to "Domestic Medicine" Dr. Buchan tells us his friends said, "...it would draw on me the resentment of the whole faculty " and that "By the more selfish and narrow minded part of the Faculty, the performance was condemned; while many ... received it in a manner which at once showed their indulgence, and the falsehood of the common opinion, that all physicians wish to conceal their art..."

Buchan's advice is to us almost rudimentary and we might find it difficult to believe that basic washing was not common - a once a year bath, if at all, while simple regimes of breathing clean air, having a nutritious diet and taking exercise were seldom understood or practised. He also was ahead of his time in advocating cleaning of the streets, widening them, and supplying clean water.

His observations about nursing and management of children came from extensive work among infants in the Foundling Hospital, Edinburgh where he had much experience of treating disease and also of trying different nursing methods and its effects. From this experience he came to the dreadful conclusion that "almost one half of the human species perish in infancy, by neglect or improper management."

Some quotations from "Domestic Medicine" best illustrates the sensible advice for cleanliness and the care and management of children:

"The want of cleanliness is a fault which admits of no excuse."

"Diseases of the skin are chiefly owing to want of cleanliness."

"Frequent washing not only removes the filth and sores which adhere to the skin, but likewise promotes the perspiration, braces the body, and enlivens the spirits."

"Nothing can be more preposterous than a mother who thinks it beneath her to take care of her own child, or is so ignorant as not to know what is proper to be done for it."

"Few things prove destructive to children than confines or unwholsome air."

"Sufficient exercise will make up for several defects in nursing; and it isabsolutely necessary to the health, growth and strength of children."

"Children thrive best with small quantities of food frequently given. This neither over loads the stomach, nor hurts the digestion and is certainly most agreeable to nature."

"The clothing of infants is so simple a matter, that it is suprising how any person should err in it; yet many children lose their lives and others are deformed by inattention to this particular."

"A child never continues to cry long without some cause, which might always be discovered by proper attention."

"Allowing children to continue long wet is another pernicious custom of indolent nurses."

"On the proper management of children depends not only their health and usefulness in life, but likewise the safety and prosperity of the state to which they belong."

....and a warning about heritable diseases, ahead of his time:

"A person labouring under any incurable malady ought not to marry."

"Such children as have the misfortune to be born to diseased parents will require to be nursed with greater care than others."

Professor Smout so aptly describes Dr. Buchana's work as "...a monument to common sense and good advice simply expressed". Clearly the sound advice was a major stepping stone towards the concept of Public Health that finally arrived in the 1840s.

I am sure we would all agree most heartily with Dr Buchanss observation that "No part of Medicine is of more general importance than that which relates to the nursing and management of children."

Back to History of Children Main Page

Part One: History of Children 1200-1800
Part Two : The Industrial Revolution to Today
Part Three : The Dustbin Kids
Part Four : Reverand Canon Charles Jupp
Part Five : Quarrier Homes
Part Six : Dr. William Buchan
Part Seven : Thomas Guthrie
Part Eight : Neither Waif nor Stray, Book Review