usions to be drawn from
these facts are that looseness of the bowels during teething is not a
desirable occurrence to be promoted, as some mistakenly imagine, but a
risk to be by all means avoided, and I may add, when it does take place,
far less easy to control than constipation is to remedy. And next, that
in order to prevent its occurrence, care should be taken to make changes
in the diet of a child, not during the time when a fresh eruption of
teeth is taking place, but during one of the pauses in that process.
There are certain seasons of the year when diarrh[oe]a is specially
prevalent, independent of any change in diet, or alteration, in any
respect, of the circumstances in which the child is placed. Thus, in
May, June, and July, diarrh[oe]a is twice as prevalent among children at
all ages as in November, December, and January; and in August,
September, and October, its prevalence is three times as great as during
the winter months. The high mortality of children in the summer months
is due almost entirely to diarrh[oe]a, and even the bitter Northern
winter of a city like Berlin is a third less fatal to infants and young
children than the heat of its short summer.

The next point to remember is that mere looseness of the bowels is
never to be regarded during the first three years of life as of no
importance; for I have seen infants die exhausted from its continuance,
even though the examination of the body after death showed almost no
sign of disease. Doctors distinguish two forms of diarrh[oe]a: the
simple, or, as it is technically called, catarrhal diarrh[oe]a; and
inflammatory diarrh[oe]a, or dysentery. The one may pass into the other,
just as a common cold, or catarrh, may pass, if unattended to, into a
dangerous bronchitis.

_Simple diarrh[oe]a_ usually comes on gradually, and is some days
before it grows severe, or passes into the more dangerous dysentery.
Simple precautions will often arrest its progress, and, among them, rest
in bed is one of the most important. Over and over again I have known a
diarrh[oe]a which had continued in spite of all sorts of medicines so
long as the child was running about, cease at once when the child was
kept for a couple of days in bed. The reason of this is obvious;
constant movement of the intestines themselves, which serves so
important a part in maintaining due action of the bowels, is increased
by the upright position and by movement, and is reduced to a minimum by
th