have ever known.

I have no hostility to soft beds, especially for young children and feeble
adults, could softness be secured without much heat and relaxation
of the system. On the contrary, it is certainly desirable, in itself,
to have the bed so soft that as large a proportion of the surface of
the body may rest on it as possible. But I consider hardness as a
much smaller evil than feathers.

It is worthy of remark how generally physicians, for the last hundred
years, have recommended hard beds, especially straw beds or hair
mattresses, to their more feeble and delicate patients. This fact might
at least quiet our apprehensions in regard to their tendency on those
who are accustomed to them in early infancy.

Some writers on these subjects appear to doubt whether, after all that
they say, they shall have much influence on mothers in inducing them to
give up feather beds for their infants. But they need not be so
faithless. Multitudes have already been reformed by their writings; and
multitudes larger still would be so, could they gain access to them. It
is a most serious evil that they are often so written and published that
comparatively few mothers will ever possess them.

The pillow, as well as the bed, should be rather hard; and its thickness
should be much less than is usual, or we shall do mischief by bending
the neck, and thus compressing the vessels, and obstructing the
circulation of the blood. But on this subject I will say more, when I
come to treat on "Posture."

The child's bed should not be placed near the wall, on account of
dampness. There is also, during the summer, another reason. Should
lightning strike the house, it will be much more apt to injure those who
are near the wall than other persons; as it seldom leaves the wall to
pass over the central part of the room.

Curtains are not only useless, but injurious. They prevent a free
circulation of the air. Everything which has this tendency must be
studiously guarded against, in the management of infants.

Nothing is more injurious to the old or the young than damp beds and
damp covering. It behoves, especially, all those who have the care of
infants, to see that everything about their beds is thoroughly dry. The
walls and clothes should also be dry; and wet clothes should never be
hung up in the room. By neglecting these precautions, colds,
rheumatisms, inflammations, fevers, consumptions, and death, may ensue.
Many a person loses his healt