have lost their lives from a mother not knowing how to act, and also from the medical man either living at a distance, or not being at hand. Fortunately for the infantile community, leeches are now very seldom ordered by doctors. 114. Supposing a baby to be poorly, have you any advice to give to his mother as to her own management? She must endeavour to calm her feelings or her milk will be disordered, and she will thus materially increase his illness. If he be labouring under any inflammatory disorder, she ought to refrain from the taking of beer, wine and spirits, and from all stimulating food; otherwise, she will feed his disease. Before concluding the first part of my subject—the Management of Infancy-let me again urge upon you the importance the paramount importance-if you wish your babe to be strong and hearty,-of giving him as little opening physic as possible. The best physic for him is Nature's physicfresh air, and exercise, and simplicity of living. A mother who is herself always drugging her child, can only do good to two persons--the doctor and the druggist! If an infant from his birth be properly managed,-if he have an abundance of fresh air for his lungs,—if he have plenty of exercise for his muscles (by allowing him to kick and sprawl on the floor),-if he have a good swilling and sousing of water for his skin,-if, during the early months of his life, he have nothing but the mother's milk for his stomach, he will require very little medicine the less the better! He does not want his stomach to be made into a doctor's shop! The grand thing is not to take every opportunity of administering physic, but of using every means of withholding it! And if physic be necessary, not to doctor him yourself, unless it be in extreme and urgent cases (which in preceding and succeeding Conversations I either have or will indicate), but to employ an experienced medical man. A babe who is always, without rhyme or reason, being physicked, is sure to be puny, delicate, and unhealthy, and is ready at any moment to drop into an untimely grave! I will maintain that a healthy child never requires drugging with opening physic, and that costiveness is brought on by bad management. Aperient medicines to a healthy child are so much poison! Let me impress the above remarks on every mother's mind; for it is a subject of vital importance. Never, then, give a purgative to a healthy child; for, if he be properly managed, he will never require one. If you once begin to give aperients, you will find a difficulty in discontinuing them. Finally, I will only say with Punch,"Don't." CONCLUDING REMARKS ON INFANCY. 115. In concluding the first part of our subject-Infancy -I beg to remark: there are four things essentially necessary to a babe's well-doing, namely, (1) plenty of water for his skin; (2) plenty of fresh genuine milk mixed with water for his stomach (of course, giving him ONLY his mother's milk during the first six, eight, or nine months of his existence); (3) plenty of pure air for his lungs; (4) plenty of sleep for his brain: these are the four grand essentials for an infant; without an abundance of one and all of them, perfect health is utterly impossible! Perfect health! the greatest earthly blessing, and more to be coveted than ought else beside! There is not a more charming sight in the universe than the beaming face of a perfectly healthy babe, "His are the joys of nature, his the smile, The cherub smile, of innocence and health.”—Knox. PART IL CHILDHOOD. The child is father of the man.-WORDSWORTH. ABLUTION. 116. Attwelve months old, do you still recommend a child to be PUT IN HIS TUB to be washed? Certainly I do, as I have previously recommended at page 11, in order that his skin may be well and thoroughly cleansed. If it be summer time, the water should be used cold; if it be winter, a dash of warm must be added, so that it may be of the temperature of new milk; but do not, on any account, use very warm water. The head must be washed (but not dried) before he be placed in a tub; then, putting him in the tub (containing the necessary quantity of water, and washing him as previously recommended),* a large sponge should be filled with the water and squeezed over his head, so that the water may stream over the whole surface of his body. A jugful of water should, just before taking him out of his bath, be poured over and down his loins; all this ought rapidly to be done, and he must be quickly dried with soft towels, and then expeditiously dressed. For the washing of your child I would recommend you to use Castile soap in preference to any other; it is more pure, and less irritating, and hence does not injure the texture of the skin. Take care that the soap does not get into his eyes, or it might produce irritation and smarting. 117. Some mothers object to a child's STANDING in te water. If the head be wetted before he be placed in the tub, and if he be washed as above directed, there can be no valid objection to it. He must not be allowed to remain in his tub more than five minutes. 118. Does not washing the child's head, every morning, make him more liable to catch cold, and does it not tend to weaken his sight? It does neither the one nor the other; on the contrary, it prevents cold, and strengthens his sight; it cleanses his scalp, prevents scurf, and, by that means, causes a more beautiful head of hair. The head, after each washing, ought, with a soft brush, to be well brushed, but should not be combed. The brushing causes a healthy circulation of the scalp; but combing the hair makes the head scurfy, and pulls out the hair by the roots. 119. If the head, notwithstanding the washing, be scurfy, what should be done? After the head has been well dried, let a little cocoa-nut oil be well rubbed, for five minutes each time, into the roots of the hair, and, afterwards, let the head be well brushed, but not combed. The fine-tooth comb will cause a greater accumulation of scurf, and will scratch and injure the scalp. 120. Do you recommend a child to be washed IN HIS TUB every night and morning? No; once a day is quite sufficient; in the morning in preference to the evening; unless he be poorly, then, evening instead of morning; as, immediately after he has been washed and dried, he can be put to bed. 121. Ought a child to be placed in his tub whilst he is in a state of perspiration? Not whilst he is perspiring violently, or the perspiration might be checked suddenly, and ill consequences would ensue; nor ought he to be put in his tub when he is cold, or his blood would be chilled, and would be sent from the skin to some internal vital part, and thus would be likely to light up inflammation-probably of the lungs. His skin, when he is placed in his bath, ought to be moderately and comfortably warm; neither too hot nor too cold. 122. When the child is a year old, do you recommend cold or warm water to be used? If it be winter, a little warm water ought to be added, so as to raise the temperature to that of new milk. As the sum mer advances, less and less warm water is required, so that, at length, none is needed. 123. If a child be delicate, do you recommend anything to be added to the water which may tend to brace and strengthen him? Either a handful of table salt, or half a handful of bay-salt, or of Tidman's sea-salt, should be previously dissolved in a quart jug of cold water; then, just before taking the child out of his morning bath, let the above be poured over and down the back and lions of the child-holding the jug, while pouring its contents on the back, a foot distant from the child, in order that it might act as a kind of douche.bath. 124. Do you recommend the child, after he has been dried with the towel, to be rubbed with the hand? I do; as friction encourages the cutaneous circulation, and causes the skin to perform its functions properly, thus preventing the perspiration (which is one of the impurities of the body) from being sent inwardly either to the lungs or to other parts. The back, the chest, the bowels, and the limbs are the parts that ought to be well rubbed. CLOTHING. 125. Have you any remarks to make on the clothing of a child? Children, boys and girls, especially if they be delicate, ought always to wear high dresses up to their neck. The exposure of the upper part of the chest (if the child be weakly) is dangerous. It is in the upper part of the lungs, in the region of the collar bones, that consumption first shows itself. The clothing of a child, more especially about the chest, should be large and full in every part and be free from tight strings, so that the circulation of the blood may not be impeded, and that there may be plenty of room for the full development of the rapidly-growing body. His frock, or tunic, ought to be of woollen materialwarm, light, and porous, in order that the perspiration may rapidly evaporate. The practice of some mothers in allowing their children to wear tight bands round their waists, and tight clothes, is truly reprehensible. Tight bands or tight belts around the waist of a child are very injurious to health; they crib in the chest, and thus interfere with the rising and the falling of the ribs-so essential to breathing. Tight hats ought never to be worn; by in |