y, at
this age, of costiveness.

I feel assured, however, that some children are more troubled with
costiveness than others, from the simple but important circumstance of
their not being early taught the habit of relieving the bowels daily,
and at a certain hour. There is a natural tendency to this periodical
relief of the system, and it exists at the earliest age. And if the
mother only cause this habit to be fairly established in infancy, she
will do much towards promoting regularity of her child's bowels
throughout life. The recollection of this fact, and the mother's acting
upon it, is of the greatest importance to the future health and comfort
of her children.

If the bowels are accidentally confined at this age, castor oil is
certainly the best aperient that can be given: it acts mildly but
efficiently, clearing out the bowels without irritating them. The dose
must be regulated by the age, as also by the effect that aperients
generally have upon the individual. Great care must in future be taken
to avoid the cause or accidental circumstance which produced the
irregularity.

When the bowels are habitually costive, much care and judgment is
necessary for their relief and future management. Fortunately this
condition is very rare in youth. The activity and exposure to the air,
usual at this period of life, render purgatives unnecessary, unless,
indeed (as just mentioned), some error in diet, or some unusual
circumstance, render them accidentally confined. Should, however, the
foregoing state exist, medicine alone will avail little; there are
certain general measures which must also be acted up to, and most
strictly, if the end is to be accomplished. They consist, principally,
in an observance of great regularity with respect to the time of taking
food, its quality, quantity, and due mastication; regular and
sufficient exercise, horse exercise being particularly serviceable; the
shower-bath, or daily ablution; early rising (the indulgence in the
habit of lying in bed always predisposing to constipation); and,
lastly, the patient habituating himself to evacuate the bowels at a
certain hour of the day. After breakfast appears to be the time when
the bowels are more disposed to act than at any other part of the day;
this is the time, then, that should be chosen.

All these points must be sedulously observed, and upon the principles
laid down in the various chapters upon these subjects, if habitual
costiveness is ex