With these two exceptions,--restored by the means we have pointed
out to the functions of life,--we will proceed to the consideration of
the child HEALTHILY BORN. Here the first thing that meets us on the
threshold of inquiry, and what is often between mother and nurse not
only a vexed question, but one of vexatious import, is the _crying_ of
the child; the mother, in her natural anxiety, maintaining that her
infant _must be ill_ to cause it to cry so much or so often, and the
nurse insisting that _all_ children cry, and that nothing is the matter
with it, and that crying does good, and is, indeed, an especial benefit
to infancy. The anxious and unfamiliar mother, though not convinced by
these abstract sayings of the truth or wisdom of the explanation, takes
both for granted; and, giving the nurse credit for more knowledge and
experience on this head than she can have, contentedly resigns herself
to the infliction, as a thing necessary to be endured for the good of
the baby, but thinking it, at the same time, an extraordinary instance
of the imperfectibility of Nature as regards the human infant; for her
mind wanders to what she has observed in her childhood with puppies and
kittens, who, except when rudely torn from their nurse, seldom give
utterance to any complaining.

2467. We, undoubtedly, believe that crying, to a certain extent, is not
only conducive to health, but positively necessary to the full
development and physical economy of the infant's being. But though
holding this opinion, we are far from believing that a child does not
very often cry from pain, thirst, want of food, and attention to its
personal comfort; but there is as much difference in the tone and
expression of a child's cry as in the notes of an adult's voice; and the
mother's ear will not be long in discriminating between the sharp
peevish whine of irritation and fever, and the louder intermitting cry
that characterizes the want of warmth and sleep. All these shades of
expression in the child's inarticulate voice every nurse _should_
understand, and every mother will soon teach herself to interpret them
with an accuracy equal to language.

2468. There is no part of a woman's duty to her child that a young
mother should so soon make it her business to study, as the voice of her
infant, and the language conveyed in its cry. The study is neither hard
nor difficult; a close attention to its tone, and the expression of the
baby's features, are the