alking alone. The periods of greatest and least
growth of the child are, on the one hand, spring and summer; on the
other, autumn and winter. It has long been known that animals grow more
rapidly in the spring than at any other season of the year. This has
been attributed to the abundance of herbage they are then able to
obtain. It has been ascertained by actual measurement, that children
grow chiefly in the spring.

At six months of age the child begins to lisp, and at twelve months it
is usually able to utter distinct and intelligible sounds of one or two
syllables. The development of the senses and of the mind proceeds
gradually. The sense of hearing is more active and further advanced than
that of sight. Sounds are appreciated sooner than light or bright
colored objects. The next sense which is developed is perhaps that of
taste; then follow smell and touch.

THE FOOD OF INFANTS AND CHILDREN.

The diet of children is frequently improper either in regard to
quantity, quality, or variety. In 1867, a committee, of which Professor
Austin Flint, Jr., was chairman, was appointed in New York city to
revise the 'Dietary Table of the Children's Nurseries on Randall's
Island.' In the report rendered, attention was forcibly called to the
fact that in childhood 'the demands of the system for nourishment are in
excess of the waste, the extra quantity being required for growth and
development. If the proper quantity and variety of food be not provided,
full development cannot take place, and the children grow up, if they
survive, into young men and women, incapable of the ordinary amount of
labor, and liable to diseases of various kinds. This is frequently
illustrated in the higher walks of life, particularly in females; for
many suffer through life from improper diet in boarding schools, due to
false and artificial notions of delicacy or refinement. After a certain
period of improper and deficient diet in children, the appetite becomes
permanently impaired, and the system is rendered incapable of
appropriating the amount of matter necessary to proper development and
growth.'

Charlotte Bronte has drawn, in _Jane Eyre_, a graphic and
physiologically true picture of the effects upon young girls of
long-continued insufficiency of food. Let mothers bear in mind that
proper food cannot be too abundantly eaten by children, and that the
greatest danger to which they are exposed arises from defective
nutrition. We would again urg