MARCH 239 



really difficult process of dressing a very young baby is 

 safely and easily performed on the pillow. I saw it done 

 by a young and inexperienced nurserymaid of nineteen, 

 who certainly could never have been trusted to wash a 

 baby as we do it in England, and I came away greatly 

 impressed with the merits of the chaff pUlow. 



A favourite trick practised by those who have charge 

 of babies is to cover or nearly cover over their faces, so 

 that the child breathes its own breath, which all edu- 

 cated people know is poisonous. When you expostulate, 

 the nurse says : ' It makes the child sleep better' — which 

 means the child is more or less asphyxiated by want of 

 air. This excuse could be urged for anything, even for 

 giving what, when I was in Canada, I saw advertised 

 everywhere as'Sirop calmant de Madame Winslow.* The 

 wretched stuff acquires a new dignity when translated 

 into French ! Fresh air, night and day, is the great 

 essential for health ; and, pretty as are babies' veils, I 

 think the babies are far better without them. All the 

 same, I saw a lovely little baby's hood last year, made in 

 a close-fitting way, like an old-fashioned baby's cap, 

 and over all was thrown a large square of net, hemmed 

 and run with three rows of satin baby ribbon. 



The public mind has been a good deal disturbed and 

 exercised by the bill, passed in '98, enabling people who 

 have 'conscientious objections' to be absolved from hav- 

 ing their children vaccinated. I should like to see all 

 vaccination voluntary, as it seems to me to be exceed- 

 ingly likely that the last scientific word on the subject 

 has not been said. But if it is really for the good of 

 the community that vaccination should be universally en- 

 forced, then the 'conscientious objector' is a danger to the 

 whole community, and should not be allowed to have his 

 way. Anybody interested in this subject will find, in the 

 twenty -fourth volume of the ' Encyclopasdia Britannica' 



