who writes on the management of children) speculated about the infant's imperfect structure at birth, about the imperfect structure of his bones, the shapeless forms of his head, and the injuries he might sustain in birth; about injuries and distortions from hurtful motions and unnatural positions. They thought the infant's body unable to support itself, and that even its own motions might destroy it. Then in came the midwives for their share of the concern. The task was theirs to model the head, and to straighten the limbs; to improve upon nature; and to support their improvements by the application of fillets, rollers, and swaddling bands. They • vied with each other who should work the work most cunningly; for, strange to tell, dexterity in working this work of cruelty was reckoned one of their mos necessary and important qualifications.'

It is at length, happily, very generally understood, that swathings and partial pressures are founded upon a wrong principle, and are calculated to be destructive of their own purpose. The requisites of clothing are confined almost solely to the preservation of a due degree of warmth, and all the bandaging that is required, is a strip of flannel or cotton folded round the body, not very tight, to serve as a support for the navel. There is one particular with regard to the infant's dress that is still too much used, and against which we are happy to find Dr. Clarke enter so distinct and decided a protest. It is that of undue warmth to the head. A thin single cap is the whole of the covering that the head should receive from the birth, and to this, it should be remembered, it is of great moment to attend. The actions of the system are disproportionately directed towards the brain during infancy; and we are disposed to think with Dr. C that keeping the head warm, which is the earnest solicitude of so many parents, while they are not sufficiently careful probably with respect to exposure of the extremities, may be one among the many exciting sources of hydrocephalus or water in the brain. It is the extremities, especially the feet, that call for the artificial warmth of clothing; and these ought never to be exposed to cold while other parts of the body are heated. Indeed, it is the partial application of cold from which most danger is always to be apprehended.

Before we quit the subject of temperature, and the best means of guarding the infant from injuries likely to arise from exposures to the variations of cold and heat, we shall say a few words on bathing. On this head, parents still find a diversity of opinions prevailing among professional men. The objects intended to be derived from bathing the infant, are twofold. In the first place, it is practised for the purpose of cleanliness;

and in the next, to strengthen the infant's frame, and give more security in future life against the hurtful operation of cold. In this, as in every other part of infantile regulation, very much depends upon the constitutional character of the child. Perhaps we may lay it down as a general rule, applicable to such as are likely to become the subjects of our observations, that the practice of cold-bathing is more to be honoured in the breach then in the observance; nevertheless, with hearty, robust children, provided there is no local irritation in the frame, particularly such as affections of the bowels, daily dipping in cold water may prove abundantly serviceable; but never let recourse be had to it as a hardening measure with weakly, delicate children, in whom the circulatory powers are too languid to produce a subsequent re-action, and general, not feverish, glow.

It may not be amiss to state this caution more fully in the words of a modern writer, with whose sentiments we fully coincide.

Immersion in cold water, during the period of infancy, (water under 80 degrees of Fahrenheit,) has been very generally recommended, and too often had recourse to in an in'discriminate manner, to preserve health and insure hardiness. The author has remarked several instances, where sensible and sometimes material injury has arisen from neglecting to observe the precautions necessary to regulate the employment. of this important agent in very early years. In infancy, danger to the lungs from cold bathing has been stated to 'exist in a very inferior degree; and by the practice of dipping children in cold water, susceptibility to the injurious impression of cold, in succeeding years, has been thought to be materially diminished. This principle, in the abstract, is undoubtedly correct; and with the exceptions and cautions now to be mentioned, may be pursued with propriety and advantage. Two infants may be supposed of one family, of reverse constitutions. In the one a general torpor, debility, and great susceptibility to cold shall prevail; in the other, comparative vigour, activity, and warmth. That degree of cold which would invigorate the one, would confirm debility, and augment torpor in the other. A bath which is not cold to the sensation, must in the first instance at least, be resorted to for the weaker infant; and in neither case should immersion in cold water be practised, when the external warmth of the body is inferior in degree to its general standard; when after immersion the body appears to be chilled, or when returning heat is attended with febrile languor, instead of the grateful genial warmth characteristic of the appropriate action of exciting powers. If the practice of immersion is guided by a cautious observance

' of these particulars, it may be adopted with safety, and will 'be attended with success ; but a total neglect of bathing would be greatly preferable to the severe and incautious manner in which infants are frequently exposed to these violent and rapid changes in temperature.'

Perhaps it may be useful to some of our readers to add, that whether bathing, or only common washing, be practised previously to the infant's being dressed for the day, the subsequent drying should be very carefully attended to. Much and very troublesome irritation of the parts in which the skin lies loose and folded, is often consequent upon the nurse's neglecting to make these parts thoroughly dry.

We have not yet done with the nursery: some observations remain to be made in respect to air and exercise. As in regard to dress, so likewise in relation to air, the erroneous notions of some, and the apathy of others, will serve to excite the surprise of subsequent generations. It may be remarked, too, as a triumph of science over the efforts of mere nature and instinct, that mankind seemed almost dead to the blessings of a free enjoyment of the surrounding air, till chemistry unfolded its nature and constituent principles; and now, that we begin to live and breathe, we are astonished at our former torpor. The following tale has been many times told, but it cannot be too frequently pressed upon the consideration of those who are inattentive to the good arising from a free circulation and frequent change of air. In the Lying-in Hospital at Dublin, 2,944 infants, out of 7,650, died in the year 1782, within the 'first fortnight from their birth; they almost all expired in convulsions; many foamed at the mouth, their thumbs were drawn into the palms of their hands, their jaws were locked, their faces swelled, and they presented in a greater or less degree every appearance of suffocation. This last circumstance at length induced an inquiry whether the rooms were not too close, and insufficiently ventilated. The apartments of the hospital were rendered more airy; and the consequence has been, that the proportion of deaths, according to the ' register of succeeding years, is diminished from three to ' one.'

Let then the apartments in which infants are reared, by all means be rendered as airy as possible; and let this ventilation be so contrived as to prevent a current or stream of air from coming upon the child or children. In a former article, on Consumption, we have pointed out the attention necessary to this particular, and the comparatively great regard that is given to it in countries where at the same time the inhabitants are much more free in respect to general exposure, and much more

eapable than we are, or conceive ourselves to be, of enduring such exposure with impunity.

For the first two or three months the wants of the infant are confined almost solely to good air, good nourishment, and plenty of sleep. Afterwards, it changes this passive existence, for one of a more positive and active nature; and it then becomes an important inquiry how to regulate the development of bodily faculties now daily displaying themselves. Dr. Friedlander tells us, that in his opinion the French others play too much (jouaient trop) with their infants in the early months, and that they 'thus give too early a stimulus to their natural vivacity, while, · on the contrary, the German mothers pursue too far the system of quietude. In England, (he says), where the physical education of children has arrived at the greatest degree of perfection, the little ones are left more at liberty to obey the dictates of nature;'-and the more this is done, the better, perhaps. We think there is sometimes too much tossing; and averse as we are to forming any general conclusions from a few particular facts, it has now and then appeared to us, that serious affections of the head have been induced by that undue and violent agitation to which very young children are sometimes subjected. But let us on the other hand guard against a torpid, indolent, uninterested nurse, as one who is likely to do an irreparable injury to the constitution, and sometimes actually to the structure and shape of our children. It were better that the infant were put on the floor and left entirely to his own natural and unassisted actions, in the manner in which we are told the infants of the Caffres* are, than carried on the arm of a nurse who feels her charge a burden, and who, when out of immediate notice, will keep it in one position for perhaps an hour at a time, and that a very bad one; resting on the

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The children of the Caffres,' (says the author of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa) soon after birth, are suffered to crawl about perfectly naked; and at six or seven months they are able to run. A cripple or deformed person is never seen. Egypt again, the haram is the cradle or school of infancy. The new-born feeble being is not there swaddled and filleted up in a swathe, the source of a thousand diseases. Laid naked on a mat, & exposed in a vast chamber to the pure air, he breathes freely, and with his delicate limbs sprawis at pleasure. The new element in which he is to live is not entered with pain and tears. Daily • bathed bencath his mother's eye he grows apace. Free to act, he tries his coming powers; rolls, crawls, rises, and should he fall, • cannot much hurt himself on the carpet or mat that covers the 'floor.'

arm hanging by the side, instead of upon the hand with the arm somewhat extended, which is the only way in which a child should be carried; and if the nurse-maid have not strength to do this, she is not qualified for her situation. Constant change of position also, both when the child is carried in the arms, and when it is put down in bed, ought to be urged as a cardinal ingredient in good nursing; and that more especially when any disinclination to such change is discoverable on the part of the infant; otherwise a rickety conformation will appear before any injury may have been suspected even by a mother who is not careless of her charge. Daily frictions ought likewise to be employed, especially when any thing like a menace of a rickety disposition begins to display itself.

(To be continued.)

Art. VII. Sermons to Young People. By the late Rev. Samuel Lavington, of Bideford, Devon: Delivered at a Lecture founded by the late Captain Young. 12mo. pp. 280. Price 6s. 6d. Bristol. Long. 1815.

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N the review of Mr. Cobbin's French Preacher, in the last Number, we have extracted a description of the style of the Author of these Sermons, accompanied with a testimony to the amiableness of his character, which, we believe to be strictly just. Two volumes of Mr. Lavington's Sermons have already obtained a wide circulation, and have made the Author extensively known, as a pulpit orator of considerable originality and elegance. A familiar, sometimes colloquial mode of address, admirably calculated to fix the attention; a happy adaptation of scriptural language; and an affectionate earnestness of manner in his hortatory appeals to the conscience, render these Sermons highly useful as models, though not for indiscriminate imitation, and still more valuable for domestic and village reading. The present volume contains a series of annual addresses to Young People, which were delivered at Bideford, in pursuance of the directions of Captain Young. Mr. Lavington avails himself of this circumstance, to represent the Lecture as the Captain's legacy to the young people of the town. One can scarcely conceive of any thing much more impressive than some of the addresses and expostulations contained in this volume, if they were delivered with sufficient animation by the venerable minister. It is scarcely fair to judge of them by a detached specimen. There is occasionally a quaintness which marks the time when the Author was young; but this is more obvious in extracts, than on perusing a whole sermon. The Sermons form a complete serics, the exordium