fty years ago: for what with
chin-stays, back-stays, body-stays, forehead-cloths, rollers, bandages,
&c., an infant had as many girths and strings, to keep head, limbs, and
body in one exact position, as a ship has halyards.

2493. Much of this--indeed we may say all--has been abolished; but still
the child is far from being dressed loosely enough; and we shall never
be satisfied till the abominable use of the _pin_ is avoided _in toto_
in an infant's dressing, and a texture made for all the under garments
of a child of a cool and elastic material.

2494. The manner in which an infant is encircled in a bandage called the
"roller," as if it had fractured ribs, compressing those organs--that,
living on suction, must be, for the health of the child, to a certain
degree distended, to obtain sufficient aliment from the fluid
imbibed--is perfectly preposterous. Our humanity, as well as our duty,
calls upon us at once to abrogate and discountenance by every means in
our power. Instead of the process of washing and dressing being made, as
with the adult, a refreshment and comfort, it is, by the dawdling manner
in which it is performed, the multiplicity of things used, and the
perpetual change of position of the infant to adjust its complicated
clothing, rendered an operation of positive irritation and annoyance.
We, therefore, entreat all mothers to regard this subject in its true
light, and study to the utmost, simplicity in dress, and dispatch in the
process.

2495. Children do not so much cry from the washing as from the
irritation caused by the frequent change of position in which they are
placed, the number of times they are turned on their face, on their
back, and on their side, by the manipulations demanded by the
multiplicity of articles to be fitted, tacked, and carefully adjusted on
their bodies. What mother ever found her girl of six or seven stand
quiet while she was curling her hair? How many times nightly has she not
to reprove her for not standing still during the process! It is the same
with the unconscious infant, who cannot bear to be moved about, and who
has no sooner grown reconciled to one position than it is forced
reluctantly into another. It is true, in one instance the child has
intelligence to guide it, and in the other not; but the _motitory
nerves_, in both instances, resent coercion, and a child cannot be too
little handled.

2496. On this account alone, and, for the moment, setting health and