cise quantity
which nature demands. Many cases might be cited, where children have
never had a prescription written for them, simply because, these points
having been attended to, their diet has been managed with judgment and
care; whilst, on the other hand, others might be referred to, whose
life has been hazarded, and all but lost, simply from injudicious
dietetic management. Over-feeding, and improper articles of food, are
more frequently productive, in their result, of anxious hours and
distressing scenes to the parent, and of danger and loss of life to the
child, than almost any other causes.

TEETHING.--The irritation caused by difficult teething may give rise to
diarrhoea at the period when the infant is weaned, independently
of the weaning itself. Such disorder of the bowels, if it manifestly
occur from this cause, is a favourable circumstance, and should not be
interfered with, unless indeed the attack be severe and aggravated,
when medical aid becomes necessary. Slight diarrhoea then, during
weaning, when it is fairly traceable to the cutting of a tooth (the
heated and inflamed state of the gum will at once point to this as the
source of the derangement), is of no consequence, but it must not be
mistaken for disorder arising from other causes. Lancing the gum will
at once, then, remove the cause, and generally cure the bowel complaint.

3. TO THE CHILD BROUGHT UP BY HAND.

Children brought up on an artificial diet are very liable to
indigestion and bowel complaints; indeed none more so: and it is from
these affections that so many of these infants perish. When, then, it
is absolutely necessary from untoward circumstances to have recourse to
this mode of nourishing the child, the rules and regulations laid down
in the section on "Artificial Feeding" must be most strictly followed
out, if the parent would hope to avoid disease and rear her
child.[FN#37] And if these affections should at any time unfortunately
manifest themselves, the mother ought carefully and diligently to
examine whether the plan of feeding pursued is in every particular
correct, particularly bearing in mind that the two causes most
frequently productive of disorder in the child are overfeeding and the
exhibition of unsuitable food--the two grand errors of the nursery.
These results, however, have already been sufficiently dwelt upon as
likely to take place at weaning, and they may of course occur to a
child who is brought up on a