Water Babies - Review

Water Babies: an evolutionary parable.

The nineteenth-century Anglican theologian Charles Kingsley was immediately impressed by Darwin's Origin of Species. Whilst many in Victorian Britain reacted against the idea of natural selection, Kingsley saw in the contingency of selection a divinely ordained imperative for human endeavour, not least the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Here, Kingsley believed, was a crucial insight into the ...

Blue babies and nitrate-contaminated well water.

The use of nitrate-contaminated drinking water to prepare infant formula is a well-known risk factor for infant methemoglobinemia. Affected infants develop a peculiar blue-gray skin color and may become irritable or lethargic, depending on the severity of their condition. The condition can progress rapidly to cause coma and death if it is not recognized and treated appropriately. Two cases of b...

First Opinion: Babies, Babies, and More Babies

Water loss from the skin of term and preterm babies.

Water loss from the skin of term and preterm babies, nursed naked in incubators under neutral thermal conditions, was measured by a method based on estimating the water vapour pressure gradient close to the skin surface. 199 sets of measurements were made on 78 babies whose gestational ages ranged from 26 to 41 weeks, during the first 4 weeks of life. Babies of 34 to 41 weeks' gestation had hig...

Babies

This little brochure is an altogether admirable one for the expectant mother and mother. In simple language it deals with the ordinary problems of maternity from a non-technical standpoint. The expectant mother is counselled to consult her medical adviser twice during pregnancy: once within the first three months, to ward off such dangers as eclampsia, osteomalacia and the like; the second time...