42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mind in the pavilion de P enfant. Here is, in a few words, a resume 

 of them : Paucity of the material upon which the inexperienced yet 

 inquisitive baby can exercise, with interest and profit, his sense of 

 touch ; profusion, bad taste, and dangerous disposition of the objects 

 which speak to the eye, if not always with the intention, at least 

 with the almost uniform result, of giving wrong or dangerous im- 

 pressions. 



Attention was next called to what had been done, and to what had 

 been left undone, for the cultivation or the satisfaction of the other 

 senses of the infant. But here it was soon perceived that our inqui- 

 ries went beyond the sphere of what was exhibited. There were 

 plenty of Farina's and Rimmel's volatilities, some of Alexander's, De- 

 bain's, or Smith's sighing accordeons, but no means of cheering and 

 educating the nascent yet already inquisitive senses. Further exami- 

 nation showed that the perfumes were there as an attenuation and 

 the music as a distraction, and both intended for other senses than 

 the infant's. From these and other omissions it was concluded that 

 nursery arrangements are as yet intended rather for the mother's and 

 nurse's comfort than for the baby's improvement. 



2.' The Ckeche. This pavilion de V enfant ought to contain at 

 least ene model crhche. 



Creche is the French name of the public nursery where working- 

 women leave their little ones in the morning, and whence they bring 

 them home at night. The cr&che I Horrid necessity ! Beginning of 

 the communistic inclined plane upon which those who pay and do not 

 receive rents slide with a fearful rapidity; yet a kind institution for 

 those already fallen into the gulf. Since, therefore, creches must 

 be, their latest improvements should have been represented at the 

 Vienna Exhibition next to the appliances of the most luxurious 

 nursing. There could have been tested the action of colors, of light, 

 and its various attributes, on the organ of vision ; the influence 

 of varied sounds, of harmonies and melodies on the virgin audi- 

 tion, the mind, and the sympathetic centres ; the power of primary 

 perceptions to awaken first ideas, to impel to determinations of the 

 will, and to raise or calm the various passions ; the effects of diet 

 upon those passions ; the effect of modification of food and digestion ; 

 the influence of rest and sleep on the body's temperature, on the pulse 

 and respiration ; the influence of the artificial, the moist, or the dry 

 heat of the nursery on the too precocious development of the nervous 

 centres, and, subsequently, on the prevalence of chronic or acute 

 meningitis, diphtheria, and croup ; besides many other problems 

 whose solution depends on the early study of phenomena wdiich can 

 be found in the creche as surely as the flower in the bud. There, bet- 

 ter than anywhere else, they may be studied with profit to all parties. 

 Let us bear in mind that the rich man can never flatter himself that 

 he does a gratuitous charity, since from its poor recipient comes many 



