always be fed in a sitting posture, that swallowing may be more easy to them. If a child be not accustomed to feeding at night, it will not want it, but get into a habit of sleeping all or most part of the night very quietly, only waking when its napkin requires to be changed. It is night-feeding that makes children so over-fat and bloated. At the end of twelve months, the child should be weaned by degrees, that it may neither feel nor fret for the want of the breast.

When the bowels are very irritable, a small quantity of limewater, as a dessert-spoonful or two, may be added to the article of food three times a day. A lady of Yorkshire, in the ninety-first number of the Gazette of Health, states that this addition, simple as it may appear to be, rendered three weakly children very healthy, and that she has found it an efficacious preventive of rickets.

Strong liquor of all kinds should be scrupulously avoided. The custom of giving a child spirits in its food, or in the form of toddy, with the supposed view of preventing gripes, is very pernicious. Griping pains or spasms in the bowels I have uniformly observed to be the consequence of overloading the stomach; the effect of which is the production of an acid, which occasions the griping pains, or spasmodic affection of the intestines. The best preventive is, therefore, proper meals, after proper intervals; and, when the food becomes acid, the best corrective is lime-water, which may be employed in lieu of common water, with a few drops of the essence of dill, or of caraway seeds, when the bowels are disturbed by gas. Such liquors, although well diluted, applied to their tender digestive organs, must unavoidably impair their functions, and may lay the foundation for a train of the most dangerous complaints. It has been urged in favour of this horrid, unnatural practice, that many children, accustomed to a little spirits for a few days after birth, continue to thrive uninterruptedly; but such arguments only tend to prove that the vigour of their constitution was equal to the counteraction of the usual effects of strong liquors.

Were this plan of nursing literally pursued, the children kept clean and sweet, tumbled and tossed about, played with and kept in good humour, and carried out every day when the weather admits of it, I am confident, in the course of eight or nine months, most children would become healthy and strong, and able to sit without support; to divert themselves an hour at a time, to the great relief of their nurses; would very readily find the use of their legs, and very soon shift for themselves. By this method of nursing, likewise, hereditary diseases may be suspended, and in course of time every taint and infirmity, the king's evil and insanity not excepted, may be worn out.

It is a duty incumbent on parents to have their children nursed under their own eyes, and to make use of reason and common sense in superintending and directing the management of them; and that of the mother to suckle her infant: if she be healthy, it will confirm her health; if weakly, it will, in most cases, improve it.* It need be no confinement to her, or abridgment of her enjoyments, as three or four times in twentyfour hours will be enough to give it suck. It may be fed and dressed by some reasonable servant, that will submit to be directed, and with whom it might likewise sleep. No other woman's milk can be so good for her child. Dry nursing is not only unnatural, but the most dangerous method of all; for not one child in six, thus brought up, lives a year.

OF THE EXERCISE OF CHILDREN. All our care in the feeding and clothing of infants will not succeed, till, by due degrees, a child is brought to bear much exercise without fatigue. It should be pushed forward, and taught to walk as soon as possible, so that at the end of twelve months it may (if healthy) be capable of walking alone. It is a vulgar error to suppose children are not to be put on their legs because they are weak, or the least bent or crooked; daily experience shows crooked legs will grow, in time, strong and straight by frequent walking †, and that disuse makes them worse. The walks should

* The luxuries which modern refinement has introduced in the manner of living, although they may not prevent every woman from being a mother, certainly render many very unfit for the office of a nurse; but when the mother is of a strong constitution, she is unquestionably the most proper nurse, and ought to be advised to undertake the task on account of her own health as well as that of her infant. When the milk of a brute is employed, that should be adopted which approaches nearest to the human. The milk of women is more light and thin, and contains a greater proportion of sugary principle, than that of any other animal. Ass's milk, in these respects, approaches nearest to woman's, and next to it the mare's, then the cow's, and then the goat's.

Females predisposed to consumption are the most prolific, and during gestation the disease of the lungs is generally suspended. When a consumptive lady is delivered, it is often a nice point to determine whether she should suckle her infant or not. On account of the emaciation and weakness of the mother, most medical men suppose that suckling will hasten the progress of the disease; but so far from this being the case, I have uniformly found suckling to relieve the affection of the lungs, and to improve the general health. When the appetite is good, I would advise a consumptive mother, of a florid or plethoric habit, however emaciated the system may be, to suckle her child about two or three times in twenty-four hours, as the most likely means of restoring her to health. (See CONSUMPTION, p. 305.)

It is worthy of observation, that those mothers who have not suckled their offspring are most subject to cancerous complaints of the breast and womb, and consumption of the lungs.

Every member in a state of health acquires strength in proportion as it is exercised; and children, by being accustomed to support themselves, will soon acquire strength for that purpose. When, however, the limbs are curved, the

be gradually increased every day, till they can go two miles without weariness, which they in general are able to do in three years, if they be accustomed to it properly. From this daily exertion, they will, from the impulse of their own active vigour, soon be found running, leaping, and playing, all day long. Thus a dull heavy child may be made playful and sprightly, and a weakly one healthy and strong, and confirmed in good habits and permanent health.

There are other little niceties, which, were they observed in the nursing of children, would be of great service to them; such as making them lie straight in bed: I do not mean extended like a corpse, but that their limbs should be free and easy. They should be taught to use both hands alike; for employing one more than another* will not only make that hand and side of the body larger than the other, but occasion curvature or distortion of the spine or ribs; neither should they be always laid on the same side, nor carried constantly on the same arm. It would likewise not be amiss to forward their speaking plain, by repeating easy distinct words to them, instead of the jargon generally made use of by

nurses.

Dr. Hamilton condemns the use of a cradle for children, on account of its being improperly used by nurses. I have always recommended a crib, to be so constructed as to be fixed to the side of the bed during the night, and to be easily carried from one room to another in the day-time; it must not be made to rock.

bowels much enlarged, and the child evidently disposed to rickets, the legs may not be equal to the support of the body. In this case, the child should be supported when put on the legs. Rolling or lying on the floor is a healthy exercise, while sitting is generally hurtful. (See RICKETS.)

On this absurd custom of parents and nurses, a late author observes, "Great pains are generally taken by mothers that their children should not be left-handed, by which injudicious anxiety, they are prevented from the full use of that member. Nature has given us two hands alike in form, equal in strength, and equally calculated for exertion; but by the present practice this gift is in a great measure abandoned, and one of them comparatively rendered inefficient. Were the same trouble taken to inake children use only their right eye, the consequence to the left eye would be exactly similar. If, therefore, I have the good fortune to persuade sensible mothers to amend this universal error, I shall enjoy the satisfaction to think that I have in no small degree contributed to the good of society. I would recommend, that children from their earliest infancy, be habituated indiscriminately to use both hands, to alternate them in all their little manual occupations, and when sufficiently grown, they should be encouraged to cut their meat, and employ their exertions with either hand." This author recommends the arms to be exercised by swinging the dumb-bells: but this exercise I have known to produce deformity; riding on the rocking-horse is far preferable. Mr. Clarke, who has paid particular attention to the exercise of children, with the view of preventing distortion, and producing symmetry, has invented a chair, which, by supporting the spine and shoulders during the sitting position, prevents distortion or curvature. This simple contrivance may be obtained at Mr. Thompson's, No. 116, Long Acre.

N N

In cold weather, however, the infant ought not to be allowed to sleep by itself, as heat is absolutely necessary to keep up the vital functions of a very young or weakly infant.

"By arts like these

Laconia nursed of old her hardy sons,

And Rome's unconquer'd legions found their way,
Unhurt through ev'ry toil, in ev'ry clime."

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CHOICE OF A WET-NURSE, &c. A wet-nurse should not only be clean, healthy, sober, and temperate, but likewise middle-aged, because at this period she will have more milk than the very young, and more and better than the old. Regard should be had to the time of her lying-in, and one procured who has not been brought to bed more than three months; for nature intending that a child should suck only twelve months, the milk seldom continues good much longer: about that time, women, though they give suck, are also apt to breed again; and some that are very sanguine much sooner; which, and other periodical causes, disturb and affect the milk greatly; and therefore they are not proper nurses six months after their delivery.*

The nurse's food should consist of a proper mixture of flesh and vegetables: she should eat one hearty meal of unsalted meat every day, with a great deal of vegetables, and little bread, and thin broth or milk for her breakfast and supper, and her drink should not be stronger than good ale or porter.

If the child is not to suck its own mother, it should have a little purgative physic in a day or two after its birth, to carry off the long-hoarded excrements: for this purpose, a little manna may be given, dissolved in water: or the nurse may take a little lenitive electuary, which, through the medium of the milk, will act on the bowels of the child: by these means, three or four stools should be procured in twenty-four hours.

The child should be kept awake by day, as long as it is disposed to be so, and great care be taken that no anodyne quack medicine be given, or means taken to lull or rock it to sleep, or to continue it asleep long, which is too much the custom of wetnurses, to save themselves the trouble of exercising it, to the great detriment of the child's health, spirits, and mind. If the nurse has another child to support with her own milk, the sooner the child is fed, according to the method I have recommended, the better, as it is not likely she should have milk enough to support two.

* From chemical experiments, it appears that the milk of a woman varies at certain stages of suckling. If this fact, therefore, be duly considered, how important is it that this nourishment should agree with the child both as to age and its specific quality! This circumstance, at any rate, forcibly points out the propriety of a mother's suckling her own offspring, where health admits of it.

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As soon as the child has cut two teeth, it may be used to the inside of roasted meat, of which it will be more fond than confectionary, pastry, &c., the latter of which only debauch the taste and disorder the stomach.

OF THE DISEASES OF CHILDREN. - Having observed that the first and principal cause of almost all diseases that assail infants, is the acid corruption of the food, and it being easier to prevent diseases than to cure them, I shall here introduce a certain preventive, if given in due time.

On the first appearance of predominating acid, which is evinced by curdled, white, or green stools, griping pains, and purging, ten grains of magnesia, combined with two grains of rhubarb powder, should be given in a little mint-water, or the prepared natron, as directed page 96, which will correct the sourness more effectually than prepared chalk, or the Gascoign ball, so generally employed by nurses: and, instead of producing a costive state of the bowels, the certain consequence of these cretaceous absorbents, the magnesia and rhubarb, or prepared natron, will gently carry off the offending matter, and at the same time strengthen the stomach and bowels. If the purging, however, should continue excessive during the use of either of these medicines, the Absorbent Mixture, p. 109, may be substituted; and provided that should not restrain it, the Astringent Mixture (B), p. 112, will be necessary. (See LIME-WATER, p. 144.) If the child be supported entirely by the breast, the mother should live more on animal food; and if it be allowed spoon-meat, it should be the vegetable and animal combination mentioned under the head of Arrow-root, p. 156. By the early employment of these remedies, many complaints may be prevented, which, from neglect, grow from bad to worse, and too often end fatally.

OF INWARD FITS. The first symptoms of the disturbance of the general health termed inward fits, are an appearance of - being asleep with the eyelids a little open, frequent twinkling, with the eyes turned upwards; the muscles of the lips affected with a tremulous motion, producing something like a smile, and sometimes almost the appearance of a laugh. As the disease advances, the breathing becomes interrupted, and appears now and then to stop a little, with a considerable fluttering at the heart, and intermission of the pulse; the nose becomes pinched; a pale circle encompassing the eyes and mouth, often livid, and at times disappearing entirely. The child at length becomes so irritable and nervous, that it starts at the least noise; it will then sigh, and discharge wind, which affords a temporary relief, and presently relapses into a dosing. Sometimes it struggles very much before the wind is expelled; then vomiting, or a loud fit of crying, sets all right again. As the child advances in age,"