214 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



especially in these days of intense competition, when, given an 

 equality of brains and education, it is the strong body that tells 

 in the long run, and gives staying power. That alone can help 

 the mind to bear the strain, and anything that can assist our chil- 

 dren to bear this daily increasing strain is surely not beneath our 

 notice. 



It is really surprising to see the amount of trouble and pains 

 bestowed on the proper housing and feeding of horses and dogs, 

 or other domestic animals, while at the same time comparatively 

 little attention is paid to these matters with regard to the rearing 

 of children. Model stables and model kennels abound, while the 

 model nursery is almost wholly unknown. Warming, ventila- 

 tion, and aspect are all subjects which are thoroughly considered 

 in the stable, while as regards the nursery they are generally left 

 for chance to decide though the health of a child is surely more 

 important than that of a horse or a dog. "We have all stayed in 

 country houses, where the host has taken us over his beautiful 

 stables fitted with every convenience, and have heard his anxious 

 inquiries as to the health of his favorites, or we have been driven 

 to the model cow-sheds, or kennels, but which of us has been 

 taken over the model nursery ? 



The men can not be troubled about babies ! (though they have 

 no objection to puppies or calves) they leave all that to the 

 women and the women, that is to say the mistresses, leave it to 

 the nurses, often entirely ignorant though kindly persons, whose 

 chief recommendation is that they are so fond of children ! This 

 would seem a ridiculous state of affairs were it not so lamentable. 



Two of the best rooms in the house should be assigned to the 

 children, one for the night the other for the day nursery, but this 

 is by no means often done. In small houses where there is but 

 one spare room, it is of common occurrence to see the largest and 

 sunniest apartment set aside for the visitors, who perhaps occupy 

 it for two months in the year, while the children have to live 

 cramped up in a small, sunless garret. 



Sunshine is as necessary to the human being as to the plant ; 

 and it is said in confirmation of this that, during the Crimean 

 War, Miss Nightingale nursed the wounded soldiers in a hospital 

 one side of which looked north, the other south, and that she ob- 

 served that the soldiers lying in the wards with a southern aspect 

 recovered far sooner than their comrades in those on the northern 

 or sunless side. In our climate it is hardly possible to have too 

 much sunshine, and the nurseries should certainly have a south- 

 ern outlook. 



Where there is a large family of children the night nursery is 

 frequently overcrowded, and no regard is paid as to whether there 

 is sufficient cubic space for each person. If there be overcrowd- 



