sports of children, and plying them continually with admonitory injunctions against accidents when they are engaged in play, is calculated to favor the occurrence of the very accidents which these means are meant to obviate, by the timidity they almost inevitably inspire. (Eberle.)

The leading precautions to be observed in regard to the exercise of children, is to prevent it from being carried on in the open air in very damp or wet weather; and, during warm weather, to guard against exposure to the direct rays of the sun. Exercise, also, of a very active character, should not be engaged in by children immediately after meals; nor when, by exercise, the body becomes heated, or perspiration is induced, should children be permitted to throw off a portion of their clothing, or to sit upon the ground, or in a draught of air, in order to cool themselves. It would be better, particularly during the milder seasons of the year, if, whilst actively engaged in exercise, a lighter dress than usual were worn, some additional clothing being immediately resumed when the exercise is suspended.

While a large amount of active exercise is essential to health, and to promote the full and regular development of the body in children generally, there is no class of them who stand more in need of it or who derive from it a greater amount of benefit, than those who, in consequence of their delicate and slender organization, are too often confined within doors, and debarred entirely from engaging in the boisterous pastimes of their more robust companions. They may not, it is true, be able to endure, at first, the same amount and degree of exercise as the latter; but when allowed to follow their own inclinations, they will be led, by the example of others, to pass the greater part of their time in childish sports, in the open air, by which their limbs will speedily acquire development and strength, and every function of their system that full activity which can alone guard them in after life from suffering and disease.

The absurd notion, that the health of weakly or delicate children is to be promoted by confinement and inactivity, has not unfrequently induced parents to commit a very serious error in determining upon the future occupation of their sons; selecting for those of a slender and delicate frame a profession, or some sedentary employment; while, to the robust and vigorous, is often assigned a more active and laborious occupation, demanding considerable bodily exertion, and repeated exposure to the open air. As a general rule the very opposite of this course should be pursued: the robust being best able to bear up against the pernicious effects of that confinement and inactivity, to which the enfeebled constitution will very speedily fall a prey, while the latter will be materially benefited by the very exertion and exposure to which it is supposed to be unadapted.

7. Moral Treatment.

At no period of life does the cultivation of a cheerful disposition tend more powerfully to the promotion of health, than during infancy and youth. It is a common observation, founded upon experience,

that fretful and peevish children seldom thrive well; and it is amazing how soon, by mismanagement or neglect, their naturally cheerful and joyous dispositions may become impaired, or exchanged for a state of almost constant fretfulness and discontent.

A due attention to the moral education of children is seldom commenced sufficiently early. Although it is true, that many of the passions have no existence during infancy, while others may be said to be still in the bud, nevertheless, even in the cradle, the exhibition of fear, anger, resentment, jealousy, and their kindred emotions, is by no means unfrequent-and if not counteracted by a firm, prompt, and judicious management, these passions become often prematurely developed to a fearful extent-impairing the present health and comfort of the child, and sowing the seeds of discomfort and suffering, to destroy the happiness of the whole remaining period of its

existence.

It is too commonly the case that the entire system of nursery discipline has a direct tendency to call into action, at an early age, the passions of the child-rather than to still them, or to direct them into their appropriate channels. At one time he is dandled and coaxed, in order to quiet him; at another he is scolded and beaten for the very same purpose. We either do what he desires, or oblige him to do what we like: we comply with his whims, or make him submit to ours. Thus no medium is observed; and he is doomed to be always either giving orders or receiving them. The first ideas he forms are those of dominion and slavery; before he can speak he commands-before he acts, he obeys; and sometimes he is corrected before he is conscious of faults, or even before he is capable of committing them. Thus we seize the earliest opportunity of implanting in his tender mind those passions which are afterwards unjustly attributed to nature-and having taken pains to render him depraved, we complain when we find him so. (Rousseau.)

A peevish and fretful disposition in infancy, if not, as is generally the case, the result of errors in nursing, or too close confinement in a stagnant and impure atmosphere-by which the energies of the system are impaired-digestion materially impeded, and the sentient organs subjected to impressions, if not positively painful, at least uncomfortable-is often induced by unkindness, impatience, or want of temper on the part of the mother or nurse. An infant whose natural inclinations are continually thwarted-who is placed in the cradle and attempted to be forced to sleep, when it would be awake and playful-and whose disinclination to repose, and the cries by which this is expressed, expose it to angry chidings-a passionate slap, or a rough shaking from its attendant-or whose calls for its natural food, or to be nursed or diverted, are repelled by equally injudicious means, will seldom fail to become peevish, restless, and fretful. It may be proper, on many occasions, to soothe an infant to repose by gentle fondling and the soft lulling notes of some nursery air; but if these do not quickly succeed in producing the desired effect, it is better to desist at once, than to resort to any others.

By endeavoring, as soon as the first period of infancy is passed, to

accustom the child, as much as possible, to regular periods for eating, sleeping, and all other natural operations, much of the trouble attendant upon the duties of the nursery may be avoided and its quiet less often disturbed. If the infant is encouraged to start up at any moment of the day or night, and demand the breast, or if the latter is constantly offered to it as a means of soothing its cries, whether it be hungry or not, perpetual restlessness and discontent must be the result; and these once established as a habit, the mother's peace and enjoyment, and the child's health and welfare, are sure to be sacrificed. The infant may be quieted for the moment. in this way, but it will be at the expense of tenfold trouble and disappointment at a future time.

An infant should, on no occasion, be subjected to any degree of harshness, either of voice or manner. It should be invariably addressed in a soft and soothing tone, be surrounded by none but smiling and affectionate countenances, and ever receive at the hands of its attendants the tenderest treatment. Struve objects, very properly, to the constant playful teasing of young children, practised by many persons, as well as to the attempts often made to excite them to activity when they feel inclined to lie quiet, as so many means of rendering them peevish and uncomfortable. Even when the fretfulness of the infant is the result of some accidental irritation, the smiling countenance and tender caress of the mother, and the simple and cheerful songs of the nursery, are the means best adapted to quell it. Care must be taken, however, not to mistake an improper indulgence of the whims and caprices of an irritable child, for a proper degree of gentle care and tenderness. The whims and caprices of the child should invariably be opposed, and by a little gentle firmness may very quickly be subdued, whereas, if either directly or indirectly given way to, the foundation may be laid for permanent and very serious defects of disposition.

All attempts to prevent or soothe the fretfulness of an infant by cakes, sweetmeats, and confectionery, should be absolutely prohibited. Children soon acquire a morbid appetite for such things, which is ruinous to their health; it is often surprising how quickly they learn to cry and fret in order to obtain them. Neither should children, when they happen to fall or receive a slight hurt, or experience disappointment of any kind, be soothed by expressions of extreme pity or sorrow, and be allowed, in order to still their cries, some foolish indulgence. Nothing tends more certainly to encourage a fretful, complaining, and exacting disposition, or to induce violent and long-continued paroxysms of crying for the most trivial

causes.

A prudent mother, who is herself of an amiable and cheerful disposition, must perform but illy her duties as a nurse, or she would. seldom have cause to complain that her time is wholly occupied during the day, and her rest disturbed at night by the cries of a fretful infant.

The most perfect mildness, gentleness, and kindness in the treatment of infants, are all-important; not only to prevent their be

coming peevish and fretful, and to cherish the germs of those affections, which, "growing with their growth, and strengthening with their strength," shall shed over every scene of after life their happy influence; but also, to preserve them from the immediate attacks of disease.

The excitability of the nervous system, which is always greater in infants than in adults, is often so excessive, that an unusual sound-an angry look-a loud tone of voice-a repellent countenance-a rude shake--even being suddenly awoke from sleep, is sufficient to produce an impression that may immediately bring on a violent attack of convulsions--or of spasm of the glottis; and if frequently repeated, may eventuate in positive disease of some portion of the brain.

Young children are readily excited by trifling causes; and though it is not exactly the emotion of fear that is produced-yet the deep alarm expressed by every feature, the agitation in which every limb is thrown, and the fearful screams, or rather shrieks, that are uttered-prove that it is one of too intense a character for the delicate organism of an infant to sustain with impunity. No one who has witnessed the apparent agony and piercing cries of an infant, that has been alarmed at some loud and unusual sound striking upon its ear-at some unexpected and perhaps uncouth object suddenly presenting itself before its eyes-or even at the motion made by a strange person of repulsive mien, to take it from the arms of its mother or nurse, will not be surprised that from the same cause should, occasionally, result convulsions, and other forms of violent disease.

Fear of the most intense kind-causing immediate injury to health, and capable of producing a lamentable degree of feebleness of character in after life, is not unfrequently excited and cherished in children, by the reprehensible conduct of parents and nurses in their attempts either to render them quiet, or to enforce obedience to their commands by threatening them with a visit from some object of terror. In not a few instances the intense fear thus engendered has been productive of effects almost immediately fatal. We recollect the case of a female child, repeatedly threatened by her parents to be given to a sweep, that he might carry her away in his bag, who, on accidentally encountering a sweep, that had entered the house in pursuit of his avocation, fell down immediately in a violent fit of convulsions, which terminated fatally in a few hours.

Punishing children for disobedience or other offences, by shutting them up in dark garrets, cellars, or closets, produces often the most injurious effect upon their nervous system. Sir Astley Cooper, in his Lectures on Surgery, relates the case of a young girl who for some offence was put, by a school mistress, in a dark cellar. The child was dreadfully frightened, and cried violently, during the hour she was kept in the cellar. When she returned home in the evening, she implored her parents not to put her into the cellar. Her parents found it very difficult to pacify her. She passed a restless night, and in the morning was found to be laboring under fever, her constant cry being, "Pray, don't put me in the cellar." The fever con

tinuing unabated, on the fourth day Sir Astley saw the child and endeavored to subdue it, but in vain. The child, three days after wards, was a corpse.

When the sensation of fear has been deeply engraven on the mind during infancy, it is seldom entirely eradicated in after life. It palsies, to a certain extent, the powers of reason, and produces, under particular circumstances, a deplorable state of mental imbecility; which not only detracts from the comfort of the individual, but lays him open to the inroads of disease. We are liable to be ruled often by the influence of incidents and impressions that we have forgotten; or, in other words, sensations are subject to be revived by association, when the causes which first produced them are remembered no longer. How studious, therefore, ought those who have the care of children to be, that no impressions be made on their minds, which, as Darwin has observed, may bias their affections, mislead their judgments, impair their coolness and firmness in situations of danger, or render nugatory their best resolves, to the end of their lives. Parents are often heard to complain of the obstinacy of their infants and the necessity of severe measures to reduce them to obedience. In a large number of instances the obstinacy of the child is either imaginary or the result of the parent's own mismanage ment; and the severe means used to conquer it, in many cases, tend to confirm it while they act prejudicially upon the health of the little sufferer. The young infant is often reputed obstinate, because it cannot conform its wants to the convenience or the caprice of its parents; because it will not close its eyes in sleep at their desire— refrain from crying for food when it is hungry, and the mother is not ready to attend to its wants; or, when it begins to prattle, to form. articulate sounds, at her command, to the pronunciation of which its organs of speech are not yet adapted. When the child is somewhat older, he is, perhaps, commanded to remain within doors, and sit still and study his lesson, while perhaps the gladsome sound of his companions' sports strike on his ear, and stimulate his desire to par take of them, or while he beholds, from his chamber, their gambols in the neighboring fields; under such circumstances, he can neither fix his mind upon his book, or remain quiescent for any length of time, however repeatedly he may be commanded to do so. The child evinces neither obstinacy nor disobedience; he is merely fol lowing the natural instinct of his age for bodily action; and if an attempt be made to restrain this by punishment, the mind and the temper as well as the health of the body, equally suffer injury.

The reluctance to stop, when children are once in motion, is often mistaken for obstinacy. When they are running, singing, laughing, or talking, if they be suddenly commanded to desist, they are unable instantly to obey. The inability to desist suddenly from any occupation, is often so painful to children, that, to avoid that pain, they become obstinate. It is, therefore, better to stop them by presenting new objects to their attention, than by the stimulus of a peremptory voice, or the still more objectionable means of corporeal punishment.