CONTENTS.

PART I.—INFANCY.
PAGE
Preliminary Conversation [1013]
Ablution [1016]
Management of the Navel [1024]
Clothing [1028]
Diet [1032]
Vaccination [1056]
Dentition [1062]
Exercise [1075]
Sleep [1077]
The Bladder and the Bowels [1084]
Ailments, Disease, etc. [1085]
Concluding Remarks on Infancy [1119]
PART II.—CHILDHOOD.
Ablution [1120]
Clothing [1123]
Diet [1132]
The Nursery [1150]
Exercise [1172]
Amusements [1177]
Education [1183]
Sleep [1188]
Second Dentition [1194]
Disease, etc. [1195]
Warm Baths [1294]
Warm External Applications [1295]
Accidents [1297]
PART III.—BOYHOOD AND GIRLHOOD.
Ablution, etc. [1318]
Clothing [1327]
Diet [1332]
Air and Exercise [1337]
Amusements [1341]
Education [1347]
Household Work for Girls [1355]
Choice of Profession or Trade [1355]
Sleep [1359]
On the Teeth and the Gums [1364]
Prevention of Disease, etc. [1366]
Index [1403]

Advice to a Mother.

PART I.—INFANCY.

I hardly know so melancholy a reflection, as that Parents are necessarily the sole directors of the management of Children; whether they have, or have not judgment, penetration, or taste, to perform the task.—Greville.

Man’s breathing Miniature!—Coleridge.

PRELIMINARY CONVERSATION.

1. I wish to consult you on many subjects appertaining to the management and the care of children,—will you favor me with your advice and counsel?

I shall be happy to accede to your request, and to give you the fruits of my experience in the clearest manner I am able, and in the simplest language I can command—freed from all technicalities. I will endeavor to guide you in the management of the health of your offspring;—I will describe to you the symptoms of the diseases of children;—I will warn you of approaching danger, in order that you may promptly apply for medical assistance before disease has gained too firm a footing;—I will give you the treatment on the moment of some of their more pressing illnesses—when medical aid cannot quickly be procured, and where delay may be death;—I will instruct you, in case of accidents, on the immediate employment of remedies—where procrastination may be dangerous;—I will tell you how a sick child should be nursed, and how a sick room ought to be managed;—I will use my best energy to banish injurious practices from the nursery;—I will treat of the means to prevent disease where it be possible;—I will show you the way to preserve the health of the healthy,—and how to strengthen the delicate;—and will strive to make a medical man’s task more agreeable to himself,—and more beneficial to his patient,—by dispelling errors and prejudices, and by proving the importance of your strictly adhering to his rules. If I can accomplish any of these objects, I shall be amply repaid by the pleasing satisfaction that I have been of some little service to the rising generation.

2. Then you consider it important that I should be made acquainted with, and be well informed upon, the subjects you have just named?