Not only the present health then, and well-doing of the children, but their conduct and happiness in future life will, to a great degree, be influenced by the manner in which the nurse-maid's duty is performed. How careful therefore ought a mother to be in the selection of this individual.

I would further observe, that cleanliness is essential in a nurse. Without thorough cleanliness the health and comfort of children must greatly suffer. Their persons, clothes, bed-clothes and beds must ever be kept clean, pure and sweet; and depend upon it this will never be the case, if the nurse who has the charge of them is not in herself in all respects cleanly. Never be satisfied with a nurse merely washing her face and hands upon rising in the morning, and the latter during the day as occasion may oblige her; but require a thorough ablution of the whole body, every or every other morning. This will not be thought by any means a work of supererogation, when it is remembered that one or other of the little ones is in the nurse's arms the greater part of the day, and, perhaps, during the night one has to sleep with her.

Again, a happy, cheerful disposition in a nurse has a most beneficial influence on the character and health of children. The youngest child is sensibly affected by the feelings apparent in the faces of those around him. How beautifully is this

fact illustrated in the following quotation from the diary of a titled and amiable woman of former times, which although a fiction, the paragraph I quote is so true to nature that I cannot refrain from inserting it. Speaking of her first and infant boy, she writes: "Yesterday it happened as I nursed him, that being vexed by some trifling matters that were not done as I desired, the disturbed expression of my countenance so distressed him that he uttered a complaining cry; made happy by a smile and by the more serene aspect that affection called forth, he nestled his little face again in my bosom, and did soon fall asleep. It doth seem a trifling thing to note, but it teacheth the necessity of watchfulness." An active, cheerful, good-humoured nurse, by regular affectionate attendance, by endeavouring to prevent all unnecessary suffering, and by quickly comprehending the language of signs of her little charge, will make a child good-humoured. Yet, on the other hand, the best-humoured woman in the world, if she is stupid, is not fit to have the care of a child, for it will not be able to make her understand any thing less than vociferation. A careless, negligent, and passionate woman will not only injure the temper of the child, but its health too. If possible, avoid placing children under the charge

* Diary of Lady Willoughby, p. 11.

of an individual suffering from any great natural defect a person who squints, for instance, or who may have lost an eye, or who is lame, or particularly ugly, or even one who has a bad expression of countenance. Any one who stutters, or has any kind of impediment in her speech,nay, any one whose voice is particularly harsh and loud, or whose manners are rough and clumsy, is not a fit person to have charge of children.

A nurse should be an early riser. She will thus betimes have her nursery well-ventilated and cleaned, and ready for the children, who are generally early risers, or ought to be. In order for this to be habitually carried out, arrangements must always allow the nurse-maid to retire to rest early.

A nurse-maid should be fully impressed with the importance of promptly informing the parents of any circumstances connected with the health of the children that from time to time may demand attention. An observant nurse will often, by thus timely drawing attention to slight indisposition, prevent serious disease. And she should, on no account, conceal any injury the child may have sustained.

G

SECT. II.

DURING INFANCY. FOR several weeks after birth the infant sleeps more or less, day and night, only waking to satisfy the demands of hunger; at the expiration of this time, however, each interval of wakefulness grows longer, so that it sleeps less frequently, but for longer periods at a time.

This disposition to repose in the early weeks of the infant's life must not be interfered with; but this period having expired (about the third month), great care is necessary to induce regularity in its hours of rest, otherwise too much will be taken in the day time, and restless and disturbed nights will follow. The child should be brought into the habit of sleeping in the middle of the day, and for about two hours, more or less (say from eleven to one o'clock), and again for half an hour or an hour about three o'clock, not later; for if put to rest at a later period of the day, it will inevitably cause a bad night. And it is now important that he should not be put to sleep immediately after a meal, as the process of digestion would cause the sleep to be uneasy, and therefore not so refreshing. It is right to observe, in reference to the amount of sleep required by infants, this necessarily differs somewhat in dif

ferent children. An observant parent, however, will soon determine for herself what is required, and the regulations laid down above will be found generally applicable. The chamber should always be darkened, and the room kept as free from noise as possible.

At first the infant should sleep with its parent. The low temperature of its body, and its small power of generating heat, render this necessary. If it should happen, however, that the child has disturbed and restless nights, it must immediately be removed to the bed and care of another female, to be brought to its mother at an early hour in the morning, for the purpose of being nursed. This is necessary for the preservation of the mother's health, which through sleepless nights would of course be soon deranged, and the infant would also suffer from the influence which such deranged health would have upon the milk.

When a month or six weeks has elapsed, the child, if healthy, may sleep alone in a cradle or cot, care being taken that it has a sufficiency of clothing, that the room in which it is placed is sufficiently warm, viz. 65°, and the position of the cot itself is not such as to be exposed to currents of cold 'air. It is essentially necessary to attend to these points, since the faculty of producing heat and consequently the power of maintaining the temperature, is less during sleep than