e nail-biting and dirt-eating seen, and how are they to be
controlled?_

These habits belong especially to children over three years old. They
are seen particularly in those who are excessively nervous or whose
general health is below par; sometimes in those who develop serious
nervous diseases later in life. Children with such tendencies should
be closely watched, and every means used to break up these habits
early. Dirt-eating is a morbid craving which is rarely seen in a
normal child.

_At what age may a child generally be expected to go without wetting
the bed during the night?_

Usually at two and a half years, if it is taken up late in the
evening. Some children acquire control of the bladder at night when
two years old, and a few not until three years. After three years
habitual bed-wetting is abnormal.

_How should a young child addicted to bed-wetting be managed?_

At three or four years of age, punishments are sometimes useful,
especially when it seems to depend more upon the child's indifference
than anything else. They are of no value in older children, rewards
being much more efficacious. In all cases one should give a child
plenty of milk and water early in the day, but no fluids after 4 P.M.,
the supper being always of solid or semi-solid food. The child
should be taken up regularly at ten o'clock or thereabouts. It often
happens that the formation or continuance of the habit is due to the
child being in poor general condition, to some irritation in the
urine, or in the genital organs. Unless the simple means mentioned are
successful the child should be placed under the charge of a physician.

_What is masturbation?_

It is the habit of rubbing the genital organs with the hands, with the
clothing, against the bed, or rubbing the thighs together. Sometimes
the child sits upon the floor, crosses its thighs tightly and rocks
backward and forward. Many of these things are passed over lightly and
are regarded for months as simply a "queer trick" of the child. It may
be seen at any age, even in those not more than a year old, and in
both sexes.

_How should such a child be treated?_

Masturbation is the most injurious of all the bad habits, and should
be broken up just as early as possible. Children should especially be
watched at the time of going to sleep and on first waking. Punishments
and mechanical restraint are of little avail except with infants. With
older children they usually make matters