lthful infant is a good recommendation for a nurse, but
care should be taken to ascertain that it is her _own_, as nurses have
been known to borrow for such an occasion and so obtain credit not
justly their due.

The moral and mental as well as physical characteristics should be
considered. Temperance and cleanliness are indispensable in a wet-nurse,
and the want of either should be an imperative reason for rejection.
Equanimity of temper, cheerfulness, and an open, frank, affectionate
disposition, are of course greatly to be desired.

If the nurse becomes 'unwell,' shall the child be taken from her? Should
the monthly sickness reappear early, and both nurse and child be in good
health, suckling may be continued. But when the return happens about the
ninth or tenth month, the child should be weaned or the nurse changed.
There is no physiological reason for preventing the nurse from living
matrimonially; but if pregnancy occurs, the child should be taken from
her.

The same rules that we have laid down for the mother for the care of her
health while nursing, are of course applicable to the hired wet-nurse,
and should be insisted upon and enforced.

_Changing a nurse._--When it becomes necessary to change a nurse, for
any of the reasons above mentioned, it may be done without injury to the
child. For fear of the effect of the unwelcome tidings upon the mind of
the nurse, and the possible influence upon the milk, she should not be
informed of the projected change until a successor has been secured to
take her place at once. In choosing the second nurse, the same
precautions should be had as in the selection of the first.

THE CHILD.

_THE CARE OF INFANCY._

By infancy we mean that portion of the life of the child between birth
and the completion of the teething--about two and a half years. The care
of this period of human life is entrusted to the mother. It forms an
important era in the physical life of woman. Its discussion is therefore
germane to our subject. In order that the young mother may fully
appreciate the responsibilities of her position, she should know
something of the liability of infants to sickness and death.

Out of one thousand children born, one hundred and fifty die within the
first year, and one hundred and thirteen during the next four years.
Thus two hundred and sixty-three, or _more than one-fourth, die within
five years after birth_. Between the ages of five and ten, thirty-five
d