2 INTRODUCTION. 



In reply to this it is sufficient to state, that millions annually 

 perish from a neglect of the conditions which Divine wisdom 

 has appointed as requisite for the preservation of the body from 

 fatal disease ; and that millions more are constantly suffering 

 various degrees of pain and weakness, that might have been 

 prevented by a simple attention to those principles which it is 

 the province of Physiology to unfold. From the moment of 

 his birth, the infant is so completely subjected to the in- 

 fluence of the circumstances in which he is placed, that the 

 future development of his frame may be said to be governed 

 by them ; and thus it depends, in great part, upon the care 

 with which he is tended, and the knowledge by which that 

 care is guided, whether he shall grow up in health and vigour 

 of body and mind ; or shall become weakly, fretful, and self- 

 willed, a source of constant discomfort to himself and to 

 others ; or shall form one of that vast proportion, whose lot 

 it is to be removed from this world before infancy has ex- 

 panded into childhood. The due supply of warmth, food, and 

 air are the principal points then to be attended to ; and on 

 every one of these the greatest errors of management prevail. 

 Thousands and tens of thousands of infants annually perish 

 during the few first days of infancy, from exposure to cold, 

 which their feeble frames are not yet able to resist ; and at 

 a later period, when the infant has greater power of sustain- 

 ing its own temperature, and is consequently not so liable to 

 suffer from this cause, the seeds of future disease are sown, 

 by inattention to the simple physiological principles, which 

 should regulate its clothing in accordance with the cold or 

 lieat of the atmosphere around. Nor is less injury done by 

 inattention to the due regulation of the diet, as to the quan- 

 tity and quality of the food, and the times at which it should 

 be given ; the rules for which, simple and easy as they are, 

 are continually transgressed through ignorance or carelessness. 

 And, lastly, one of the most fertile sources of infantile dis- 

 ease, is the want of a due supply of pure and wholesome air ; 

 the effects of which are sure to manifest themselves in some 

 way or other, though often obscurely and at a remote period. 

 It is physiologically impossible for human beings to grow up 

 in a sound and healthy state of body and mind, in the midst 

 of a close, ill-ventilated atmosphere. Those that are least 

 able to resist its baneful influence, are carried off by the dis- 



