reach at some part of the day is unfit for | a human being to sleep in.

A New York merchant noticed, in the progress of years, that each successive bookkeeper gradually lost his health, and finally died of consumption, however vigorous and robust he was on entering his service. At length it occurred to him that the little rearroom where the books were kept opened into a back yard, so surrounded by high walls that no sunshine came into it from one year's end to another. An upper room, well lighted, was immediately prepared, and his clerks had uniform good health ever after.

A familiar case to general readers is derived from medical works, where an entire English family became ill, and all remedies seemed to fail of their usual results, when, accidentally, a window-glass of the family room was broken, in cold weather. It was not repaired, and forthwith there was a marked improvement in the health of the inmates. The physician at once traced the connection, discontinued his medicines, and ordered that the window-pane should not be replaced,

A French lady became ill. The most eminent physicians of her time were called in, but failed to restore her. At length Dupeytren, the Napoleon of physic, was consulted. He noticed that she lived in a dim room, into which the sun never shone; the house being situated in one of the narrow streets, or rather lanes, of Paris. He at once ordered more airy and cheerful apart ments, and all her complaints vanished, From these facts, which cannot be disputed, the most common mind should conclude that cellars, and rooms on the northern side of buildings, or apartments into which the sun does not immediately shine, should never be occupied as family rooms or chambers, or as libraries or studies, Such apart ments are only fit for stowage, or purposes which never require persons to remain in them over a few minutes at a time. And every intelligent and humane parent will arrange that the family room and the chambers shall

be the most commodious, lightest, and brightest apartments in his dwelling,

Feather Beds are going out of fashion. This is a step in the right direction, for they are enervating and positively unhealthy, The best bed, and the most healthy, is a curled hair mattress. For additional warmth, it is well to spread a comforter, or a blanket doubled, upon the mattress, under the sheet. Good hair mattresses are rather expensive; thirty pounds weight make a fair one, thirty-five pounds a better, and forty pounds quite a good one. Husk from corn makes a good mattress. It requires to be well picked before using. Dried leaves from the maple or beech make a clean, healthy bed for the poor.

If a spring bottom is placed under the mattress, and a good conscience on top of it, good and refreshing sleep be expected.

may

Position for Sleep. It is a good plan on first getting into bed to lie on the left side, and after to change to the right side, which is the most natural position; sleeping with the arms extended above the head, or with the mouth open, generally causes disturbed sleep, even if it is not absolutely injurious,

Night Dress. A long, easy-fitting night dress should always be worn to sleep in, first removing the garments worn during the day,

Dr. Winslow wisely says, there is no fact more clearly established in the physiology of man than this, that the brain expends its energies and itself during the hours of wakefulness, and that these are recuperated during sleep. If the recuperation does not equal the expenditure, the brain withers-this is insanity. Thus it is that, in early English history, persons who were condemned to death by being prevented from sleeping, always died raving maniacs; thus it is also that those who are starved to death become insanethe brain is not nourished, and they cannot sleep. The practical inferences are three: - 1st. Those who think most, who do most brain work, require

most sleep. 2d. That time "saved" | from necessary sleep is infallibly destructive to mind, body, and estate. Give yourself, your children, your servants-give all that are under you, the fullest amount of sleep they will take, by compelling them to go to bed at some regular hour, and to rise in the morning the moment they awake; and within a fortnight Nature, with almost the regularity of the rising sun, will unloose the bonds of sleep the moment enough repose has been secured for the wants of the system. This is the only safe and sufficient rule; and as to the question how much sleep any one requires, each must be a rule for himself great Nature will never fail to write it out to the observer under the regulations just given.

In his remarks to invalids on this important subject, Dr. Hall says: "The more you can sleep, the sooner you will get well. Sleeping in the daytime, if before noon, will enable you to sleep better the following night. Go to bed at regular hours with an empty stomach. Get up as soon as you wake of yourself, but do not be waked.

"The great regulator of sleep is exercise; it is the best anodyne in the universe, and the only one that is always safe, always efficient, and always wholesome and natural. If you cannot take much exercise, take a little, and from day to day gradually increase the

amount."

Being waked up early, and allowed to engage in difficult or any studies late and just before retiring, has given many a beautiful and promising child the brain fever, or determined ordinary ailments to the production of water on the brain.

Let parents make every possible effort to have their children go to sleep in a pleasant humor. Never scold or give lectures, or in any way wound a child's feelings as it goes to bed. Let all banish business and every worldly care at bedtime, and let sleep come to a mind at peace with God and all the world. The human body falls asleep by degrees, according to M. Cabinis, a French

physiologist. The muscles of the legs and arms lose their power before those which support the head, and these last sooner than the muscles which support the back; and he illustrates this by the cases of persons who sleep on horseback or while they are standing or walking. He conceives that sense of light sleeps first, then the sense of taste, next smell, and, lastly, that of touch.,

Dr. J. C. Jackson, celebrated as a water cure practitioner in Western New York, says: "As a habit and fashion with our people we sleep too little. It is admitted by all those who are competent to speak on the subject, that the people of the United States, from day to day, not only do not get sufficient sleep, but they do not get sufficient rest. By the preponderance of the nervous over the vital temperament, they need all the recuperating benefits which sleep can offer during each night as it passes. A far better rule would be to get at least eight hours' sleep, and, including sleep, ten hours of incumbent rest. It is a sad mistake that some make, who suppose themselves qualified to speak on the subject, in affirming that persons of a highly-wrought, nervous temperament need-as compared with those of a more lymphatic or stolid organization

less sleep. The truth is, that where power is expended with great rapidity, by a constitutional law, it is regathered slowly; the reaction, after a while, demanding much more time for the gathering up of new force, than the direct effort demands in expending that force. Thus, a man of the ner vous temperament, after he has established a habit of overdoing, recovers from the effect of such overaction much more slowly than a man of different temperament would, if the balance between his power to do and his power to rest is destroyed. As between the nervous and the lymphatic temperaments, therefore, where excess of work is demanded, it will always be seen that, at the close of the day's labor, whether it has been of muscle or thought, the man of nervous tem

perament, who is tired, finds it difficult to fall asleep, sleeps perturbedly, wakes up excitedly, and is more apt than otherwise to resort to stimulants to place himself in conditions of pleasurable activity. While the man of lymphatic temperament, when tired, falls asleep, sleeps soundly and unin terruptedly, and wakes up in the morning a new man. The facts are against the theory that nervous temperaments recuperate quickly from the fatigues to which their possessors are subjected. Three-fourths of our drunkards are from the ranks of the men of nervous temperaments. Almost all opium-eaters in our country - and their name is legion — are persons of the nervous or nervous sanguine temperaments. Almost all the men in the country who become the victims of narcotic drugmedication, are of the nervous or nervous-sanguine temperaments.

Dr. Cornell, of Philadelphia, in the Educator, gives the following opinion corroborative of the above as an explanation of the frequency of insanity. He says: "The most frequent and immediate cause of insanity, and one of the most important to guard against, is the want of sleep. Indeed, so rarely do we see a recent case of insanity that is not preceded by want of sleep, that it is regarded as almost a sure precursor of mental derangement. Notwithstanding strong hereditary predisposition, ill health, loss of kindred or property, insanity rarely results unless the exciting causes are such as to produce a loss of sleep. A mother loses her only child; a merchant his fortune; the politician, the scholar, the enthusiast may have their minds powerfully excited and disturbed; yet, if they sleep well they will not become insane. No advice is so good, therefore, to those who have recovered from an attack, or to those who are in delicate health, as that of securing, by all means, sound, regular and refreshing sleep."

A great deal of sickness may be prevented by knowing just what to do at the first premonitory symptoms. Many

persons would take a simple remedy immediately, if they only knew what that remedy was. But they will not send for a physician until they are nearly prostrated by the disease; and again there are numerous little ailments causing great annoyance and much suffering,little "pains and aches" that do not actually require the services of a doctor, the remedy for which is generally known, but just at the moment it is needed the exact name of it, the proportion, or how it should be taken, is forgotten, and though not knowing where to turn to for the information, the disturbance is allowed to run on until it becomes serious, and perhaps quite difficult to

cure.

sure

It frequently happens in country places, that persons, in sudden attacks of illness, find themselves beyond the early reach of a physician. To all thus situated, the following pages are submitted, not claiming for the remedies presented that they are cures,' or possess "fabulous virtues," but they are those which have been found most successful in the practice of the profession, and have been especially adapted for family use by an eminent physician. If the directions given are carefully followed, much suffering and anxiety will be avoided. If the symptoms are severe, or the nature of them not understood, consult a good physician at once; remember that delays are dangerous, and in nothing more so than in sickness. And when you consult him, be careful to follow his instructions not only in the matter of medicine, but also in diet, exercise, etc. If he gives directions on these subjects, he has a reason for it, and they should be complied with. It is the experience of all physicians that a non-observance of these rules, in many cases, not only retard, but in some cases actually prevent a recovery from sickness.

INFANTS. As ours is a book especially designed for the mother and the nurse, the treatment of children is one on which we shall naturally be ex

pected to dwell at considerable length. We shall, therefore, take the first stage of infantile existence as our starting point, and, in as brief and clear a manner as possible, explain the various operations and processes, means and measures, which are, or may be, necessary for bringing a child safely through the difficulties and dangers of babyhood. How great are these dangers is shown by the well-ascertained fact that nearly half the children born in this country die before they reach the age of five years; this is a fearful rate of mortality, and it would seem to indicate that, notwithstanding our high state of civilization, there must be something very defective in the general run of our infant management: indeed, it has struck us as not unlikely that the too common practice of mothers in the upper, and sometimes in the middle classes of society, of delegating to others that most tender and delicate of the mother's duties, viz., suckling the child, may possibly have something to do with this high rate of mortality among infants, and we would impress upon such of our readers as are mothers, or likely to become such, that nothing but the most urgent necessity should induce them to forego the performance of this most pleasing and sacred duty. Even if the child have all the aids and appliances that wealth can procure a healthy wet-nurse, and the most careful possible of hired superintendence -it can never have the same advantages, and the same chances of escaping the dangers which beset its early career, as if it drew nourishment from the mother's breast, was nursed in the mother's arms, and watched over by the anxious carefulness of the mother's heart. There are cases we know, and many, in which the child must of necessity be deprived of these advantages, and confided to the care of those who are not its natural guardians; but there are many more cases in which there is no real necessity for such deprivation-only "the usages of polite society require it." Far more hon

ored," we would say, are such customs in the breach than the observance." Mothers! suckle your infants, if God has blessed you with the means of doing so; if you have health and strength, and can by any possibility do it, watch over your tender nurslings, and bind them to you so closely by the cords of natural affection, that no after change, or circumstance of life, shall be able to loosen those blessed ties. But this is a digression into which we ought not, perhaps, to have been tempted, and from which we must return to the more practical part of our subject.

Infant Management.-Directly the little creature has entered upon the stage of existence, and has been washed and dressed by the experienced hands of a careful nurse; after the first feeble cry has been uttered-that cry that so thrills the mother's heart it will be well content to be quiet for a while, wrapped in warm flannel, and placed in the maternal arms, or, if that may not be, between the blankets, or in the nurse's lap; there will be a calm breathing, and a flush of life spread over the tiny face; and the eyes, which have only once yet looked upon the world, will be closed in sleep. It is probable that, for many hours, the infant will be thus calmly sleeping, as motionless as Chantry's chiselled children; one can only tell it lives by the heaving of the chest and the color in the slightly-parted lips and small lineaments; but at the end of some hours, sooner or later, there will be a slight restless motion, as the pulse of life grows stronger in the veins, and the demands of nature for sustenance are just beginning to be felt. The mother has, ere this, probably, sufficiently recovered her strength to be able to take the child to her bosom, and holding it there in a loving embrace, she counts every tiny pulsation with a delight which only a mother can experience. But she cannot yet satisfy the want of which the infant is but half conscious, for unlike the lower animals, which can suckle their young directly they are born, the lacteal fluid will not flow

from her breast until the end of the second, or sometimes, even the third day. It is concluded by some that the mouth of the infant should not be applied to the breast until that period; but Dr. Marshall Hall says: "Let this application be made as soon as the fatigue of labor is perfectly over, if the mother is doing well. The child's mouth is softer than that of the nurse. The secretion of the milk will be greatly excited, and the milk secreted will be equally gently removed. There will then be no milk abscess-no milk fever in many cases in which these must otherwise occur. If the infant be not early applied, the breast becomes swollen, and the nipple drawn in; and nursing becomes at once difficult and painful to the mother, and a source of fretfulness to the infant."

It is very common for a nurse to give to an infant, a few hours after it is born, a very little thin, perfectly smooth oatmeal gruel; this affords the necessary nutriment, and excites a gentle action of the bowels, and has the effect of relieving them of a thick, dark-colored matter, technically called meconium, which they contain at birth; a drop or two of Castor Oil is also given, with or without the gruel; this, perhaps, is scarcely necessary, but there is no valid objection to it; therefore, if it is the nurse's usual practice, she need not be interfered with in the matter. If, at the end of the first day, no sustenance can be obtained from the mother's breast, a little lukewarm fluid, composed of cow's milk and water, in equal proportions, and slightly sweetened with lump sugar, should be given in feeding bottle, with a prepared calf's teat, or a nipple of India-rubber fitted to it; by this the child's mouth becomes accustomed to the natural mode of obtaining nourishment; when this kind of food has once been given, it should be continued about every two hours or so, a very small quantity at the time-letting the child, before each feeding, endeavor to obtain it from the mother's breast first; as soon as it can do this, of course all artificial food

should be put aside—that is, if the flow of milk is sufficient; if not, the breast and the bottle may be used alternately, for a while. "The mother's milk and the mother's warmth are the proper sources of nutriment and heat to her own infant; it should lie on no other breast and in no other arms." And certainly, for the first six or eight months of infantile life, no other than the natural nutriment is required, provided the supply of this be good, and sufficient in quantity; should this not be the case, the question of artificial food will have to be considered, unless a wet-nurse is engaged, against which there are many objections, both economical and moral.

To every mother, then, is to be committed the care of her own infant, in its largest, broadest sense. She is the first to submit herself to all those rules of diet, medicine, exercise, and quiet which are essential to insure her own good health. She is then to supply her own infant with milk, and with warmth, and for this latter purpose, she should lay it by her own side in the night. She should, in the third place, become the superintendent of its health, detecting the first signs of indisposition, and seeking immediately for the remedy.

Nor does the mother's office terminate even here. But she will go on to superintend the development of its mental powers, its dispositions and its affections.

One of the most fruitful sources of disease, in the early days of infantile life, is improper management in relation to diet, and a large proportion of the suffering and mortality which oc curs during this period, arises from this cause alone; and he points out very clearly and forcibly the necessity there is of nursing upon a regular plan to insure the present and future health of the child.'"

"Milk ought to be the diet of infants for a certain time, and it alone will be sufficiently nourishing for nineteen out of twenty children ---perhaps ninety-nine out of a hundred.