on relieve the
pain, and the children return to their former state of health. It is the
frequent return of the attack, even in a comparatively mild form, the
persistent disposition to the formation of gravel, the remote risk in
the case of male children of stone in the bladder, and the habitually
imperfect performance of the digestive functions which call for special
care. The avoidance of sugar, sweets, and whatever tends to impart
acidity to the urine, the maintaining the due action of the skin by
wearing flannel, and the judicious use of alkaline remedies, sometimes
combined with iron, are the measures on which the doctor is sure to
insist.

The difficulty usually encountered in the treatment of these cases
arises from the reluctance of the parents to continue for months and
years the observance of the necessary rules. It seems so hard to deny
their little one the small gratifications in which other children may
indulge with impunity; and they fail to realise the heavy penalty, in
the shape of gout, rheumatism, gravel, and stone, which in after-life
their darling may have to pay for their over-indulgence in his early
years.

I will just mention that symptoms similar to those above described, less
severe, though more abiding, yet unattended by gravel in the urine, are
sometimes produced in little boys by an unnatural narrowness of the end
of the passage for the urine. It is well to bear in mind this possible
cause of the child's sufferings, and to consult a doctor with reference
to it, since he will be able to relieve it by a trivial operation.

=Incontinence of Urine.=--The irritation which this mechanical
inconvenience produces sometimes has to do with that troublesome
infirmity of some children, who wet the bed at night. This may also be
induced by a very acid, and consequently irritating, state of urine,
either with or without the appearance in it of gravel. Often, however,
it is a result of want of care on the part of the nurse, who neglects to
cultivate regular habits in a child; and does not pay attention to the
quantity of liquid taken at its last meal. Something, too, is due to the
fact that the sleep of a child is deeper than that of the grown person,
so that the sensation of want, which would arouse the latter to full
consciousness, does not have the same effect on the former. It sometimes
happens undoubtedly from mere indolence; and this may always be
suspected when a child, otherwise healthy, wets itse