to lie in bed
after four o'clock, and no child, except the mere infant, after five.

Much is said by a few writers, especially Macnish, of the danger of
rising before the sun has attained a sufficient height above the horizon
to chase away the vapors, and remove the dampness. But I must insist
upon earlier rising than this, though we should not choose to venture
abroad. Invigorated and restored as we are by sleep, I cannot think that
the dampness of the morning air is more injurious than the foul air of
some of our sleeping rooms.

CHAPTER XVI.

HARDENING THE CONSTITUTION.

Mistakes about hardening children. Their clothing. Much cold enfeebles.
The Scotch Highlanders. The two extremes equally fatal--over-tenderness
and neglect. An interesting anecdote from Dr. Dewees.

While I have been very particular in enjoining on my readers the
importance of thoroughly ventilating their dwellings, I have also
insisted upon the necessity of taking children abroad, as much as
possible. Not, however, to harden them, so much as to give them a more
free access to air and light than they can have at home; and also--when
they are old enough--to cultivate the faculties of attention,
comparison, &c.

The practice of attempting to harden children by frequent exposure to
air much colder than that to which they have been accustomed, without
sufficient additional clothing, is open to the same objections which
have been brought against cold bathing. Under the management of a
judicious medical practitioner, it may do great good to a few
constitutions; but its indiscriminate use would injure a thousand
infants for one who was benefited.

True it is that if the child is protected against cold, no harm, but on
the contrary much good may result, from carrying him abroad into the
fresh air, even in very cold weather. But what can be more painful than
to see the little sufferers carried along when their limbs are purple,
or benumbed with cold? And how idle it is to hope that such exposure
hardens or improves the constitution!

It is on the same mistaken principle that many adults go thinly clad,
late in the fall. I have seen men in November and December beating and
rubbing their hands, who, on being asked why they did not wear mittens,
replied, that if they should wear one pair of mittens so early in the
season, they should want two in the winter.

Now I cheerfully admit that to put on additional clothing before the
severity of the