impeded, is the blood imperfectly vitalised, and in the same ratio are the nutrient and other functions dependent on the blood inadequately performed. Here, then, is one source of debility, which affects the whole frame, reducing every part below the standard of healthful vigour.' Quickened respiration soon ensues, the heart becomes excited, the pulse accelerated, and palpitation is in time superadded.

There are still further evils produced by tight lacing. For the pressure being chiefly made on the lower part of the chest, the stomach and liver are necessarily compressed, to the great disturbance of their functions; and, being pressed downwards too, these trespass on that space which the other abdominal viscera require, superinducing still further derangements. Thus almost every function of the body becomes more or less impeded. And again, the girl not being able always to have her body cased in the tightlaced stays, some relaxation must take place. 'Under it the muscles of the back, deprived of their accustomed support, and incapable of themselves to sustain the incumbent weight, yield, and the column of the spine bends, at first anteriorly, causing round shoulders and an arched back; but eventually inclines to one or other side, giving rise to the well-known and too frequently occurring state of lateral curvature. This last change most frequently commences in the sitting posture, such females being, through general debility, much disposed to sedentary habits.' Such, though but very slightly sketched, are a few of the evils attending this baneful practice.

But how, then, is a good carriage to be obtained; which is not only pleasing to the eye, but is, when natural, absolutely conducive itself to health? To

insure a good carriage, the only rational way is to give the necessary power, especially to the muscles chiefly concerned; and this is to be done, not by wearying those muscles by continual and unrelieved exertion, but by invigorating the frame generally, and more especially by strengthening the particular muscles through varied exercise alternated with due repose. Attention to general health, suitable diet, regular bowels, moderate but regular exercise, not of particular muscles only, but of the whole frame, coldbathing or sponging and other such measures, will maintain a good carriage, by giving that power which the more direct means so generally practised serve but to exhaust.' In these few remarks on 'a good carriage,' I have drawn freely from a valuable article of Dr. Barlow's in the 'Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine.'

I cannot close this chapter on air and exercise without a few words on the advantage of systematic drilling by an experienced drill-master. In schools, both for boys and girls, there is usually a drill-master, but drilling is not considered an essential part of the education, and only a few 'go in for it.' Now I would advise that drilling be made obligatory: there is nothing which so helps to the production of a fine, well-developed figure as a systematic drilling, and when conducted by an experienced master, the muscles are trained individually as well as collectively, and the result is, as may be seen among our soldiers, a fine, manly figure, with a broad and deep chest. Such training is infinitely more useful than either recliningboards, or stays, or any of the means which tend to prop up the body artificially, but which fail to supply the strength necessary for the purpose.

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CHAPTER VI.

OF MEDICINES: THEIR USE AND ABUSE.

IN almost every nursery some medicines are kept, which are given to the children more or less frequently as their trifling ailments occur. And there is no objection to this, provided due care and judgment are exercised by those who administer them, and only those medicines are kept and given which may be resorted to with safety. Unfortunately this is not the case in all families; and then what misery and destruction to health does the nursery medicine-chest produce! slowly perhaps, but not the less surely. If, however, it be granted, that a young mother is not to send for the physician for every trifling ailment of her little ones, and surely no one would insist on this, then it is also very plain that there is a certain amount of information in the way of caution as well as instruction about medicine and remedies of which she ought not to be ingorant. For example, it is not required of her to seek her medical attendant every time her infant needs a dose of castor oil-but then she surely ought to know something about the quantity of this drug that it is proper to exhibit, as well as the best and least disagreeable form in which it may be given. Then, again, in reference to the making of so simple a matter as a bread-and-water poultice, this is either one of the most comforting and useful of

local remedies, or most irritating and useless, according as it is well or ill made: no mother, therefore, ought to be ignorant how to make it; and yet few possess this knowledge. But more than this, in times of real illness, to carry out the prescriptions of the medical adviser himself requires a certain amount of information bearing upon the preparation and application of remedial agents-such, for instance, as leeches, blisters, and baths-which it is most important and necessary the parent should be furnished with. It would therefore appear desirable to say a few words even upon medicine and remedies, with which a mother should make herself familiar, that she may not only administer to the trifling ailments of her children with safety, but that she may be enabled efficiently to comply with the prescriptions of the medical attendant, when disease of a serious character attacks them.

I believe

Here perhaps is the best and most appropriate place to remark upon the mode of administering medicine to children. There is great difficulty sometimes in getting a child to take its medicine. this in most instances to be the fault of the parent. If you are only firm in your manner, as well as kind, you will always succeed, unless with a very obstinate child indeed. With such there is only one resource, and that is the employment of the medicine spoon, the invention of Dr. A. T. Thomson, by whom it is thus described: 'It consists of a spoon with a hollow handle opening at the top, and also into the bowl of the spoon, which is covered with a hinged lid, but is open at the apex. The spoon is made in the form of a wedge, in order to force the teeth apart when resistance is made to its introduction into the mouth; and it is rounded

at the corner to avoid injuring the tongue and gums. When any fluid is poured into the spoon, and the lid shut down, the pressure of the atmosphere upon the fluid, at the opening near the apex, prevents it from running out of the spoon, as long as the orifice at the upper end of the handle is firmly compressed by the thumb of any person; but as soon as the thumb is removed, the fluid is projected with considerable force from the spoon. When the spoon is to be used, the head of the child must be steadied by an attendant, who should also compress the nostrils, which obliges the mouth to be opened for the facility of breathing. The spoon is then to be introduced into the mouth of the child by another person holding it in one hand, and at the same time keeping down the arms of the child with his other hand. The back of the spoon is then to be gently pressed upon the tongue, and the thumb being removed from the opening of the handle, the air rushes in, and projects the medicine into the gullet, whence it is instantly conveyed into the stomach.”

Sect. 1.—Aperient Medicine.

One of the greatest errors of the nursery is the too frequent and indiscriminate exhibition by the mother or nurse of purgative medicine. Various are the forms in which it is given; perhaps, among a certain class the 'little powder' obtained from the chemist is the most frequent, as it is certainly the most injurious, from its chief ingredient being calomel. With such persons the choice of the aperient, or the dose, or the exact condition of the health, or whether it is an aperient at all that is required, are considerations which never for one moment enter their minds: a little medicine is thought necessary, because it is evident