food must be
lessened in quantity and in strength. If the patient is an infant at
breast the best way to accomplish our purpose is to give before each
feeding two ounces of boiled water, cooled to the temperature of the
body. This dilutes the mother's milk and renders it more easy of
digestion. If bottle-fed, it is accomplished by replacing one-half of
the milk with water. In certain diseases milk is totally withdrawn, but
these cases will be noted when discussing the treatment of the various
diseases. With older children, we give milk diluted with water, or
gruels, soups, or cereals, as conditions warrant.

Needless interference with the patient must not be indulged in. Sleep
and quiet are essential features of nature's reparative process. It is
seldom necessary to disturb a sick child for the giving of food or
medicine oftener than every second or third hour. Medicine may always be
given with food. Meddlesome interference, talkative attendants, or
excessive noise may exhaust a child and may prolong and render dangerous
or fatal a condition that would otherwise go on to recovery.

One satisfactory movement of the bowel daily is essential to the comfort
and progress of a sick person. If this does not take place naturally, it
should be obtained by an enema.

At the beginning of any illness in childhood it is a safe procedure to
give a dose of a suitable cathartic as soon as it is discovered that the
child is sick.

A CHILD IS THE MOST HELPLESS LIVING THING.--Nature endows the young of
every species--except those of the human family--with certain instincts,
which, when developed, govern and control their lives absolutely. The
technical definition of an instinct is an exceedingly complicated word
picture. It is only essential to an intelligent understanding of our
subject that the reader should have a definite idea of the difference
between an act that is the result of a process of reasoning and an act
that is the result of an instinct. If a man finds his way out of his
burning home he will stay out as long as there is any danger. The
crudest kind of reasoning will teach this lesson. A horse, on the other
hand--and incidentally it may be noted that a horse is regarded as an
intelligent animal--if led out of a burning stable and let loose, will
immediately reenter and be burned to death. The horse is the victim of
instinct; he obeys the unconquerable instinct to return to his stall--he
cannot reason as the man can that