e and if convenient sleep out of doors; and
they should take iron or cod liver oil, or any other indicated tonic. If
they complain of pain they should receive cold-water douches, or the
cold pack, or the shower bath; and they should be put to bed and treated
firmly but kindly. Attention to the bowels is always essential, because
these children are as a rule the victims of chronic constipation.

WHAT A MOTHER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CATHARTICS AND HOW TO GIVE A CHILD A
DOSE OF CASTOR OIL.--Broadly speaking there are three kinds of
cathartics. I will, in a simple way, explain their action so that a
mother may know which one to select under certain circumstances.
Frequently a mother is told by her physician to "keep the bowels of her
child open." Few mothers know how to keep the bowels open, and as this
is an important matter, every mother should know the reason why "any"
laxative or cathartic is not always suitable.

CASTOR OIL.--This is one of the oldest and one of the best cathartics we
possess for children. It is a mechanical cathartic; it acts in exactly
the same way as a street-cleaning machine. It cleans the street by
sweeping or pushing everything before it.

CALOMEL--This is a chemical cathartic. It acts through the blood. When
it is absorbed by the blood its chemical ingredients act on certain
nerves as irritants. These nerves excite the liver and bowel to action
and an evacuation is the result.

CITRATE OF MAGNESIA.--This is a saline laxative. It acts by drawing out
of the bowel wall enough liquid from the blood to sweep the contents
out. It may be likened to the street cleaner who flushes and cleans the
street by means of a hose pipe attached to the water hydrant.

Under what condition should a mother use these remedies? Castor oil is
ordinarily the best cathartic in childhood; it is not, however, always
the best. Most ailments of children are of gastro-intestinal
origin--they have either overeaten or they have eaten the wrong kind of
food. The stomach and bowel are overloaded: they must be cleaned out. We
want a mechanical cathartic, one that will push everything ahead of it,
so we use castor oil. When a child needs a cleaning out, use castor oil.
By a "cleaning out" we mean, when we know he has eaten too much of a
questionable variety of food, as pastries, cakes, fruit, ice cream,
etc., as children do at parties; or when he has eaten unripe fruit, as
green apples, etc.; or when for some reason he is constipated