the other hand, will scratch them again and
again till they bleed, tearing at them with his nails, and making deep
and painful sores.

The temperature is commonly unstable and readily elevated. Moreover,
feverishness from whatever cause is often accompanied by an active
delirium, which is apt to occasion unnecessary alarm. This symptom of
delirium is always a manifestation of an excitable temperament. I
remember being called to see a young woman who was thought to be
suffering from acute mania. Examination showed that she was suffering
from pneumonia in the early stages. It was only later that we
discovered that she had always been of an unstable nervous
temperament, and had been in an asylum some years before. Those of us
who are fortunate in possessing a placid temperament and have
developed a high degree of self-control are not likely to show
delirium as a prominent symptom should we fall ill with fever; just as
we should not struggle and scream too violently when we "come round"
from having gas at the dentist's. Looked at from this point of view,
it is natural for all children to become delirious readily, and this
tendency is peculiarly marked in those who are unduly nervous.

As a consequence of this extreme sensitiveness, the nervous child is
likely to suffer more than others from a succession of comparatively
trifling ailments and disturbances. The delicacy of the child has, in
this sense, a real existence, and is not confined to the imagination
of over-anxious and apprehensive parents. No doubt the nervous mother
of an only child does worry unnecessarily, and is far too prone to
feed her fears by the daily use of the thermometer or the
weighing-machine; but her friends who are happy in the possession of
numerous and placid children are not justified in laying the whole
blame upon her too great solicitude. Children who are members of large
families, whose nervous systems have been strengthened by contact with
their brothers and sisters, are not habitually upset by trifles, and
suffer even serious illnesses with symptoms of less severity. Nervous
children, and only children, on the other hand, show the opposite
extreme. Nevertheless, the mother of a nervous and delicate child--a
child, that is to say, who, even if he is not permanently an invalid,
nevertheless never seems quite well and lacks the robustness of other
children--should realise clearly how much of this sensitiveness is due
to the atmosphere of unres