sometimes reasonably enough, to outweigh them.
The same liability exists with reference to epilepsy, insanity, and the
whole class of affections of the nervous system. Parents inquire, with
no misplaced solicitude, what is her fortune, or what are the pecuniary
resources of him to whom they are asked to entrust their son's or
daughter's future. Believe me, the question--what is the health of his
family, or of hers? is consumption hereditary, or scrofula, or epilepsy,
or insanity?--is of far greater moment, and touches much more nearly the
future happiness of those we love.

These two points regard the future parents themselves; but there are
other conditions on which the health of children to a great degree
depends; and of these the two most important are the _dwelling_ they
inhabit, and the _food_ they eat.

I do not refer here to the dwellings of the poor, situated in unhealthy
localities, where fresh air does not enter, where the rays of the sun do
not penetrate, with defective drainage and imperfect water-supply; but I
speak of the nurseries of well-to-do people. 'This will do for our
bedroom, and that will make a nice spare room, and that will do for the
children,' is what one often hears. Had you rare plants which cost much
money to obtain, which needed sunlight, warmth, and air, would you not
consider anxiously the position of your conservatory, and take much
pains to insure that nothing should be wanting that could help their
development, so that you might feast your eyes upon their beauty, or
delight yourselves with their fragrance? And yet a room at the top of
the house, one of the attics perhaps, is too often destined for the
little one and its nurse; or if there are two or three children, one
small room is set apart for the day nursery, and a second, probably with
a different aspect, for a sleeping room, and so small that it does not
furnish the needed five hundred cubic feet of air for each. And as a
consequence, the children are ailing, any predisposition in them to
hereditary disease is fostered, they have no strength to battle against
any acute illness that may befall them, and yet surprise is felt that
the doctor is never out of the house.[2]

It is needless to dwell on the hand-feeding of infants as one of the
great causes of mortality in infancy, and of sickliness in later life.
The statistics of Foundling Hospitals bear sad testimony to the fact of
its dangers, and the researches of physicians sho