guor,--catchings of the breath
followed by a long and deep inspiration,--all so many premonitory
symptoms of an approaching attack.

OF THE SLEEP.

The sleep of the infant in health is quiet, composed, and refreshing.
In very early infancy, when not at the breast, it is for the most
part asleep in its cot; and although as the months advance it sleeps
less, yet when the hour for repose arrives, the child is no sooner laid
down to rest, than it drops off into a quiet, peaceful slumber.

Not so, if ill. Frequently it will be unwilling to be put into its cot
at all, and the nurse will be obliged to take the infant in her arms;
it will then sleep but for a short time, and in a restless and
disturbed manner.

If it suffer pain, however slight, the countenance will indicate it;
and, as when awake, so now, if there is any thing wrong about the head,
the contraction of the eye-brow and grinding of the teeth will appear;
if any thing wrong about the belly, the lips will be drawn apart,
showing the teeth or gums,--and in both instances there will be great
restlessness and frequent startings.

OF THE STOOLS.

In the new-born infant the motions are dark coloured, very much like
pitch both in consistence and appearance. The first milk, however,
secreted in the mother's breast, acts as an aperient upon the infant's
bowels, and thus in about four-and-twenty hours it is cleansed away; or
if it should not, a tea-spoonful of castor oil accomplishes this
purpose.

From this time, and through the whole of infancy, the stools will be
of a lightish yellow colour, the consistence of thin mustard, having
little smell, smooth in appearance, and therefore free from lumps or
white curded matter, and passed without pain or any considerable
quantity of wind. And as long as the child is in health, it will have
daily two or three, or even four, of these evacuations. But as it grows
older, they will not be quite so frequent; they will become darker in
colour, and more solid, though not so much so as in the adult.

Any deviation, then, from the above characters, is of course a sign of
something wrong; and as a deranged condition of the bowels is
frequently the first indication we have of coming disease, the nurse
should daily be directed to watch the evacuations. Their appearance,
colour, and the manner in which discharged, are the points principally
to be looked to. If the stools have a very curdy appearance, or are too
liqui