h, and not a few their lives, in this way.
The author of this work was once thrown into a fever from such a cause.

Warming the bed is, in all cases, a bad practice. While in the nursery,
if the air be kept at a proper temperature, there will be no need of it;
after the child is assigned to a separate chamber, its enervating
tendency would result in more evil than good. It is better to let the
bed became gradually heated by the body, in a natural and healthy way.

No person, and above all, no infant, should be suffered to sleep in a
bed that has been recently occupied by the sick. The bed and all the
clothes should first be thoroughly aired. Could we see with our eyes at
once, how rapidly these bodies of ours fill the air, and even the beds
we sleep in, with carbonic acid and other hurtful gases and impurities,
even while in health, but much more so in sickness, we should be
cautious of exposing the lungs of the tender infant, in such an
atmosphere, until everything had been properly cleansed, and the
apartments properly ventilated.

SEC. 5. _The Covering._

The covering of the bed should be sufficiently warm, but never any
warmer than is absolutely necessary to protect the child from
chilliness. The lightest covering which will secure this object is the
best. Perhaps there is nothing in use that, with so little weight,
secures so much heat as what are called "comfortables."

The clothes should not be "tucked up" at the sides and foot of the bed
with too much care and exactness. For when the bed is once warmed
thoroughly with the child's body, the admission of a little fresh air
into it, when he elevates or otherwise moves his limbs, can do no harm,
but _may_ do much of good, in the way of ventilation. I deem it
important, moreover, to inure children very early to little partial
exposures of this kind.

Those mothers who, from over-tenderness, and want of correct information
on the subject, pursue a contrary course, and consider it as almost
certain death to have a particle of fresh air reach the bodies of their
infants during their slumbers, are generally sure to outwit themselves,
and defeat their very intentions. For by being thus tender of their
children, it often turns out that whenever the mother is ill, or when on
any other account she ceases to watch over them--and such times must,
in general, sooner or later come--they are much more liable to take cold
or sustain other injury, should they be exposed, th