manageable, gentle, peaceable, and kind to each other."*

Here, then, is convincing evidence that it really is in the power of man to prevent and mitigate infant suffering by knowledge and the enlightened exercise of reason. When we contrast the health and comfort enjoyed by the poor orphans under one system of treatment, with the sickness, sorrow, and loss of life entailed on them by the other, we are forced to admit that parents themselves are in a great measure the arbiters of their children's fate, and that a heavy responsibility attaches to those among them who carelessly undertake such a trust, without any attempt to qualify themselves for the adequate discharge of the duties involved in it. I am anxious to impress this upon the reader, because it is only under a conviction that it is in our power to avert many of the evils which afflict the young, that an active interest can be felt in investigating the origin of these, and assiduously using the means required for their prevention and removal. If any of the diseases which commonly destroy life in infancy can be warded off by proper care and good treatment, as the above example strikingly shows, no parent can remain indifferent to the inquiry by what means so desirable an end may be accomplished: nothing can justify neglect where its consequences are so evidently serious.

It may be argued, that the examples which I have given are extreme cases, and that no such mismanagement or fatality occurs in strictly private life. Most

* Alcott on Vegetable Diet, p. 217. Boston, U.S., 1838.

of them, certainly, are extreme cases; but on that very account they have been selected, as showing the more incontestably how extensive the sphere of our influence is, and how important it is to the young that our management of them should be in strict accordance with the nature of the infant constitution and with the laws of health. But though it be in hospitals and other institutions for children that the most fearful results of bad treatment occur, we must not infer that the records of family practice are altogether unstained with similar errors, and that even among the wealthier classes nothing more can be done for the preservation of infant health and life. On the contrary, we have too good reason to believe, that, among the best educated classes, many lives are cut short by mismanagement in infancy, which might be saved if the parents possessed in time a portion of that knowledge and practical sense which dire experience sometimes impresses upon them when too late.

The grand principle, then, which both parents and medical men ought to have ever before their eyes, is, that human life was not intended to be extinguished at its very dawn; and that its early extinction, whenever this occurs, is from the operation of previously existing causes, some of which might have been discovered and removed, while others might have been, if not entirely, at least partially counteracted. This being the case, the first duty of parents obviously is, to make themselves acquainted with the general nature and proper treatment of the infant constitution, that they may not unnecessarily risk the welfare of their

child, and their own peace of mind, upon the mere chance of finding a well-qualified substitute in a lower and still more imperfectly educated class than their own. To the right-minded mother, the management and training of her children ought to appear in the same light as the exercise of a profession. It is her natural and special vocation; and she is as much bound to fit herself for the discharge of its active duties, as the father and husband is to prepare himself for the exercise of the profession by which he is to provide for their support.

Admitting, then, that every mother should possess a general acquaintance with the nature and functions of the infant constitution, and with the conditions required for their healthy performance, it may be asked, Where is the necessary information to be obtained, seeing that none such is taught to girls at school or at home, and that very few treatises fitted for their perusal are anywhere to be met with? This difficulty is not without force. The desirableness of including such instruction in the education of women, and the possibility of giving it intelligibly, have as yet been strongly perceived by only a few, and little has been done to supply the want. Now, however, the omission is becoming every day more apparent, and several works, more or less suited to the purpose, have accordingly made their appearance. But as none of them embraces all that I conceive to be required, I have ventured on the present attempt to supply the necessary information in a plain and intelligible way,

not with the view of superseding other works, but of adding to their acknowledged utility.

The following important remarks, the result of Mr Simon's extensive experience, will form a fit conclusion to the present chapter:

"The death-rates of young children," he remarks, "are among the most important studies in sanitary science, not only on their own account, but as affording a very sensitive test of the sanitary circumstances of the district. Where infants are most apt to die, the survivors are most apt to be sickly; and where the children struggle through a scrofulous childhood to realize an abortive puberty, they beget a still sicklier brood than themselves-less capable of labour, and less susceptible of education-feeble in body and mind. A high local mortality of children almost necessarily denotes a high local prevalence of those causes which determine a degeneration of the race.'

* Introductory Report on "Papers relating to the Sanitary State of the People of England, by E. Headlam Greenhow, M.D." By John Simon, Esq., the Medical Officer of the Privy Council.

CHAPTER IV.

INFANT HEALTH NOT ACCIDENTAL, BUT DEPENDENT ON FIXED LAWS.

In this chapter I shall endeavour to give the reader such an intelligible account of the infant constitution, and of the chief conditions by which infant health is influenced, as inay be practically useful in the hands of every parent of ordinary capacity. In the choice of the subjects, and in the manner of treating them, I shall endeavour at once to embrace every important truth bearing upon infant health, and to avoid offending even the most sensitive delicacy; and wherever I may fall short of attaining my aim, I shall rely on the indulgent forbearance of the reader, in the full assurance that allowance will be made for the difficulties inseparable from the subject.

From the evidence adduced (Chap. III.), the conclusion is irresistible, that the health and life of the infant depend essentially on the kind of management to which it is subjected, and the nature of the circumstances by which it is surrounded. Where both