dren born in a very poor state of nutrition, and
children born with great difficulty, so that they are exhausted by the
violence of their passage into the world, are apt to show the opposite
fault of extreme somnolence. They are so little stimulated by their
surroundings, and they sleep so profoundly, that the sucking reflex is
not aroused. Put to the breast they continue to slumber, or after a
few half-hearted sucking movements relapse into sleep. We must rouse
such children by moving them about and stirring them to wakefulness
before we put them to the breast.

Once the child has been got to the breast, once the milk has become
firmly established, we have overcome the first great difficulty which
besets us in the management of nervous little babies, but it is by no
means the last. Restlessness and continual crying must be combated or
digestion suffers, and may show itself in a peculiar form of explosive
vomiting, which betokens the reflex excitability and unrest of the
stomach.

The sense of taste is as acute as all other sensations. If the child
is bottle-fed, the slightest change in diet is resented because of the
unfamiliar taste, and the whole may promptly be rejected. The tendency
to dyspeptic symptoms is apt to lead to much unwise changing of the
diet, and everything tried falls in turn into disrepute, until perhaps
all rational diets are abandoned, and some mixture of very faulty
construction, because of its temporary or accidental success, becomes
permanently adopted--a mixture perhaps so deficient in some necessary
constituent that, if it is persisted with, permanent damage to the
growth of the child results. We must pay less attention to changes of
diet and explore our management of the child to try and find how we
can make his environment more restful.

It is wise to accustom a nervous child from a very early age to take a
little water or fruit juice from a spoon every day. Otherwise when
breast-feeding or bottle-feeding is abandoned one may meet with the
most formidable resistance. Infants of a few months can be easily
taught; the resistance of a child of nine months or a year may be
difficult to overcome. The difficulty of weaning from the breast
recurs with great constancy in nervous children. By this time the
influence of environment has become clearly apparent. The child is
often enough already master of the situation, and is conscious of his
power. Such children will sometimes prefer to starve for