236 MORE POT-POURRI 



nurses to look after them. I am sure that is a mistake, 

 and I have known two or three cases amongst my 

 acquaintances where this was tried and answered ex- 

 tremely badly. The hospital nurse is apt to be over- 

 clever, and try far too many things, such as changing the 

 foods unnecessarily, and using medicines much too freely. 

 A baby wants ordinary animal care, warmth, regularity 

 of treatment, and the people who look after it to have the 

 courage that comes with love. It does not want remedies 

 which check ailments one day and reproduce them 

 the next day with renewed force. Why does it never 

 strike the mother or nurse, who gives a child with 

 absolute courage a harmful drug such as fluid mag- 

 nesia, that they could try instead such harmless remedies 

 as spoonfuls of orange-juice, or apples or prunes rubbed 

 through a sieve ? A doctor told me the other day that a 

 child brought up on fluid magnesia was bound to suffer 

 from that troublesome if not dangerous ailment too well 

 known in most modern nurseries, chronic constipation. 



If a child is very delicate, the mother nervous, and 

 if no good experienced children's nurse is to be got, 

 then I would recommend a monthly nurse ; though, of 

 course, they too are sometimes difficult to get. There is 

 an institution now started, called the Norland Institute, 

 16 Holland Park Terrace, London, W., and the Principal 

 will send all information if requested. It is for the 

 training of ladies as children's nurses on Froebelian 

 principles. I do not know much about it myself, but it 

 appears to be useful both for employers and employed. 

 So many women, though willing enough, are unfit for 

 any employment through want of training, and many 

 a young woman would be an excellent nurse for young 

 children who could never make a good governess or school- 

 teacher. 



Nursery arrangements are much cleaner now than 



