f the second teething in nervous and
impressionable children, in whom an attack may be produced by
indigestion, constipation, or over-fatigue. It is also by no means rare
in children in whom that skin affection, eczema, of which I have already
spoken, outlasts the time of infancy, and becomes general and severe.
The improper performance of the functions of the skin seems to cause a
peculiar sensitiveness of the air-tubes, and to render them liable to
the occasional occurrence of that spasm which produces asthma. These
cases are less hopeful than others, and the liability to the attacks
ceases only when the skin-affection has been completely cured; a reason
this for not neglecting eczema in infancy and early childhood.
Sometimes, too, it follows frequently-recurring attacks of bronchitis,
and, though less often than might be expected, it succeeds severe
hooping-cough, and in these two conditions the prospects of recovery are
less hopeful than in the others.

When asthma occurs in childhood, the first point is to ascertain the
cause on which the attack depends; and it is worth any amount of care to
discover and remove it; for if what may be called the asthmatic habit is
not formed, the attacks will, in the majority of instances, cease
between the ages of twelve and fifteen. Bad habits of the body are,
however, as difficult to get rid of as bad habits of the mind, and the
boy who grows up an asthmatic youth is very unlikely to get rid of the
disorder in later life.

It is in that form of asthma which succeeds to frequent attacks of
catching cold, and in which bronchitis precedes or accompanies each
seizure, that change of climate is most useful. In the majority of
instances a moderately sheltered seaside place, with a sandy soil such
as Bournemouth, is the best, and a few years' residence there not
infrequently overcomes every disposition to asthma through the whole
remainder of the patient's life. To this, however, there are exceptions,
and I have seen instances in which residence at Bournemouth and in the
Riviera have failed, but where a perfect cure has been wrought by the
cold, still air of Davos.

=Diseases of the Heart.=--=Malformed Heart.=--Every now and then one
sees a little babe, carefully wrapped up in its nurse's arms to shield
it, even on a warm day, from the air; and, on removing the shawl which
covered it, one is struck by the sight of a little pale pinched face,
with a livid ring around the mouth, and a