r me again to enter, and I may
pass at once to consider those ailments which rise in increasing
importance from a simple cold or catarrh to inflammation of the
air-tubes or bronchitis, inflammation of the lung substance, as
pneumonia, and inflammation of the membrane which lines the chest and
covers the lungs, or pleurisy.

=Catarrh.=--A common cold or _catarrh_ is not one of the ailments of
very early infancy. The watery eyes, the sneezing, the cough, the slight
feverishness and the heavy head are scarcely met with until after the
age of three months; nor, indeed, are they often seen till the child is
old enough to run about, to go out for a walk, and to encounter in
consequence all the variations of temperature and of damp or dryness
inseparable from the English climate.

This, however, is not entirely due to the greater exposure of the child
to these influences as it grows older, but in part also to the fact that
the lining of the air-tubes is less sensitive in early infancy than it
afterwards becomes. The young babe if it catches cold gets _snuffles_,
or stoppage of the nostrils, which first become dry, and then pour out
an abundant discharge, which sometimes dries and forms crusts, and
causes the child to suck with difficulty, and to breathe uncomfortably
and with open mouth. In a few days, however, at the worst this
discomfort passes away; and the only additional remark I have to make
is, that since obstinate snuffles are sometimes a constitutional
disease, the doctor's advice should always be sought if they last longer
than a week.

It is needless to describe a cold, but it is much more to the purpose to
say how its occurrence is to be prevented, and nine times out of ten the
observance of two simple rules will suffice for this. First, take care
that there is no great difference between the temperature of the day and
of the night nursery. The one should never be above 60 deg., nor the other
below 50 deg., and the undressing and the bath should always take place in
the warmer room. Second, never let the child wear the same shoes or
boots in the house as it does out of doors. The change should be as much
a matter of routine as the taking off its hat or its bonnet.

The domestic management of a cold is simple enough. The usual error is
the overdoing precautions, the keeping the room too hot, or overloading
the child with extra garments, or its bed with extra covering, by which
it is kept in a state of feverishne