cases
of this kind, where it requires all the resolution which a father,
uninterrupted, can summon to his aid, to administer a dose or perform a
task, on which he knows the existence of his child may be depending: but
when the thoughtless entreaties of the mother or nurse are interposed,
it makes his condition most distressing. Mothers, in such cases, ought
to encourage rather than remonstrate. They who _do not_, are guilty of
cruelty, and--perhaps--of infanticide.]

A child plunged into cold water at birth, by those whose theories carry
them so far as to do it even in the coldest weather, has sometimes been
twenty-four hours in recovering, notwithstanding the most active and
judicious efforts to restore it. In other instances the results have
been still more distressing. Dr. Dewees is persuaded that he has "known
death itself to follow the use of cold water," in this way--I believe he
means _immediate_ death--and adds, with great confidence, that he has
"repeatedly seen it require the lapse of several hours before reaction
could establish itself; during which time the pale and sunken cheeks and
livid lips declared the almost exhausted state" of the infant's
excitability.[Footnote: "Dewees on children" p. 72.]

We need not hesitate to put very great confidence in the opinion here
expressed; for besides being a close and just observer of human nature,
Dr. D. has had the direction and management, in a greater or less
degree, of several thousands of new-born infants.

Nothing, indeed, in the whole range of physical education, seems better
proved, than that while some few infants, whose constitutions are
naturally very strong, are invigorated by the practice in question,
others, in the proportion of hundreds for one, who are _less_ robust,
are injured for life; some of them seriously.

Nor will spirits added to the water make any material difference. I am
aware that there is a very general notion abroad, that the injurious
effects of cold water, in its application both internally and
externally, are greatly diminished by the addition of a little spirit;
but it is not so. Does the addition of such a small quantity of spirit
as is generally used in these cases, materially alter the temperature?
Is it not the application of a cold liquid to a heated surface, still?
Can we make anything else of it, either more or less?

I do not undertake to say, that the cold bath may not be so managed in
the progress of infancy, as to m