PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 335 



activity (or emotion), or by the process of rapid assimilation, as during 

 the first years of growth and during the recovery from an exhaust- 

 ing disease. The weight of a new-born child increases more rapidly 

 than that of a eupeptic adult, enjoying a liberal diet after a period of 

 starvation, and, though an infant is incapable of forming abstract ideas, 

 we need not doubt that the variety of new and bevrildering impres- 

 sions must overtask its little sensorium in a few hours. Xurslings 

 should therefore be permitted to sleep to their full satisfaction ; weakly 

 babies, especially, need sleep more than food, and it is the safest plan 

 never to disturb a child's slumber while the regularity of his breathing 

 indicates the healthfulness of his repose ; there is little danger of his 

 " oversleeping " himself in a moderately warmed, well-ventilated room. 

 Kever mind about meal-times : hunger will awaken him at the right 

 moment, or teach him to make up for lost time. Three or four nurs- 

 ings in the twenty-four hours are enough ; Dr. C. E. Page, who has 

 made the problem of infant diet his special study, believes that fifty 

 per cent, of the enormous number of children dying under two years 

 of age are killed by being coaxed to guzzle till they are hopelessly 

 diseased with fatty degeneration.* 



The healthfulness of village-children is partly due to the tranquil- 

 lity of their slumber in the comfortable nooks of a cpiiet homestead, 

 or in the shade of a leafy tree, while their parents are at work in a way 

 rather incompatible with the habit of fondling the baby all night. In 

 houses where there is plenty of room, the nursery and the infant's 

 dormitory ought to be two separate apartments : the play-room can 

 not be too sunny ; for the bedroom a shady and sequestered location 

 is, on the whole, preferable. Xext to out-door exercise, silence and a 

 subdued light are the best hypnotics. But under no circumstances 

 should insomnia be overcome by cradling or narcotics. Stupefaction 

 is not slumber. The lethargy induced by rocking and cradling is akin 

 to the drowsy torpor of a sea-sick passenger, and the opium-doctor 

 might as well benumb his patient by a whack on the head. The 

 morbid sleeplessness of children may be owing to several causes which 

 can be generally recognized by the symptoms of their modus operandi ; 

 impatient turning from side to side, as if in a vain attempt to obtain 

 a much-needed repose, means that the room is too stuffy or too warm ; 

 long wakefulness, combined with squalling-fits and petulant move- 

 ments, indicates acidity in the stomach (overfeeding, or too much 

 "soothing-sirup") let the little kicker exercise his muscle on the 

 floor ; in malignant cases, skip a meal or two, or give water instead of 



^ " The only wonder is that any infant lives sixty days from birth. Fed before birth 

 but three times a day he is after birth subjected to ten or twenty meals in the twenty- 

 four hours, until chronic dyspepsia or some acute disease interferes. ... So far from 

 admitting a possible error in advising three meals only, I am convinced that, for a hand- 

 fed baby especially, two would often be better than three." (" How to feed a Baby to 

 make it healthy and happy," p. 55.) 



