with their heat more readily; facts which cannot be
too generally known. They show how absurd must be the folly of that
system of "hardening" the constitution (to which reference has been
before made), which induces the parent to plunge the tender and
delicate child into the cold bath at all seasons of the year, and
freely expose it to the cold, cutting currents of an easterly wind,
with the lightest clothing.

The principles which ought to guide a parent in clothing her infant
are as follows:--

The material and quantity of the clothes should be such as to preserve
a sufficient proportion of warmth to the body, regulated therefore by
the season of the year, and the delicacy or strength of the infant's
constitution. In effecting this, however, the parent must guard against
the too common practice of enveloping the child in innumerable folds of
warm clothing, and keeping it constantly confined to very hot and close
rooms; thus running into the opposite extreme to that to which I have
just alluded: for nothing tends so much to enfeeble the constitution,
to induce disease, and render the skin highly susceptible to the
impression of cold; and thus to produce those very ailments which it
is the chief intention to guard against.

In their make they should be so arranged as to put no restrictions to
the free movements of all parts of the child's body; and so loose and
easy as to permit the insensible perspiration to have a free exit,
instead of being confined to and absorbed by the clothes, and held in
contact with the skin, till it gives rise to irritation.

In their quality they should be such as not to irritate the delicate
skin of the child. In infancy, therefore, flannel is rather too rough,
but is desirable as the child grows older, as it gives a gentle
stimulus to the skin, and maintains health.

In its construction the dress should be so simple as to admit of being
quickly put on, since dressing is irksome to the infant, causing it to
cry, and exciting as much mental irritation as it is capable of
feeling. Pins should be wholly dispensed with, their use being
hazardous through the carelessness of nurses, and even through the
ordinary movements of the infant itself.

The clothing must be changed daily.--It is eminently conducive to good
health that a complete change of dress should be made every day. If
this is not done, washing will, in a great measure, fail in its object,
especially in insuring freedom from ski