Every well-regulated house in which there are children should be provided with two nurseries, one for occupation by day, the other by night.

Before entering further into the subject, however, attention must be directed to the fact that the American city-bred child, belonging to the class in which it is possible to provide separate rooms for nurseries, is to a greater or less degree a migratory creature. For when the first warm days of May or early June make the parents bask at open windows, the child is hurried off to a suburban hotel or farm-House or to the sea-coast. Again, as soon as the cold evenings of late September suggest the comfort of an open fire, equal energy is exhibited to get him back to cozy winter quarters. In summer, most of the waking hours are spent in the open air, in winter, the greater proportion indoors; hence the day nursey must be regarded as a winter resort, and as such must possess qualities that would render it uninhabitable by the child in hot weather. The night nursery should have, though to a much less degree, the same qualities. In other words, to put the whole subject concisely, the nurseries for winter use should be warm and freely exposed to the sun; for summer use, cool and rather shaded, though always perfectly dry.

Since the child spends so much time in the open air during warm weather, the nurseries will be discussed in this chapter purely from their winter standpoint, and will be described under the following heads:

Situation. - Any room in the house will not do for a day nursery. Rather, on the contrary, must the best room be selected. It should have a south-west exposure, and be, if possible, so situated in the building as to allow of at least two broad windows, one in the southern end and one in the western side, and these windows must always be strongly barred. Into such a room the sun plays with full force from a few hours after rising until nearly the time of setting. The third floor of a house is a better elevation for the nursery, especially if there be an attic above, than either of the lower floors, partly because such rooms are remote from the ordinary domestic disturbances, but chiefly because they are drier and more readily heated, and being elevated are less cut off from sunlight by surrounding buildings.

The night nursery should, if possible, adjoin and communicate with the day nursery, although this feature is less important than proximity to the parents' sleeping-room. It should have a good-sized window so placed that it will freely admit sunlight during the day.

When the nurseries connect, the opening of communication must be capable of being completely closed by a well-fitting door or folding doors, so that one room may be thoroughly aired without chilling the other.

Neither apartment ought to communicate with a bath-room having sewer connections; in fact, although it may be an object of complaint from the nurse, the further off such a bath-room is the better for the health of the child.

While it is a matter of difficulty to accomplish in an ordinary city house, it is, nevertheless, a necessary thing to have the nurseries in close proximity to, or even in communication with, the apartment in which the parents sleep; for then the nurse is forced to be morally purer and physically more attentive than if she have a section of the house to herself.

Many mothers prefer to keep their children at night. Under this condition, the bedroom becomes the night nursery, and its situation must be as carefully selected, and its hygiene as particularly guarded, as the regular night nursery. When, too, there are several children in the family, the risk of overcrowding in such apartments must be recognized and carefully guarded against. The factor of disturbed rest, by the different hours of retirement of children and parents, is also one of importance. On all of these accounts a night nursery, under the control of a competent nurse, is, in my opinion, to be preferred.

Size. - The amount of atmospheric air required by a healthy child to accomplish thorough oxidation of the blood in respiration is about the same as that demanded by adults. Therefore the smallest admissible room for either a day or night nursery for a single child must have a capacity of eight feet cube. For more than one child the rule ordinarily given is, to multiple this figure - eight feet cube - by the number of individuals. This rule works well enough for a family of two or three children, but if the number be greater, the size of apartments required would much exceed any that could be found in ordinary houses. Lack of space, then, must be made up by more perfect methods of ventilation. To put the question in a more practical form, a room nine or ten feet high, twenty feet long and fifteen feet broad will readily accommodate, either for playing or sleeping purposes, two or three children, with one attendant, provided foul air be constantly removed and fresh air supplied by ventilation.

In every room the undermost stratum of air, and the one in which the child must pass the greater part of his time, whether awake or asleep, has a much lower temperature than the middle, and this, again, than the highest, the tendency of the heated air being always to rise to the top. Now, the greater the height of the apartment, the cooler will be the floor and its neighborhood; consequently, a lofty ceiling - namely, one over ten, or, at most, twelve feet - while it makes an imposing show, is far from being desirable for a nursery, where ease of heating and the comfort and health of the occupants are the ends to be attained. On the other hand, a ceiling less than eight feet high will tend to make the room close, stuffy and overwarm, and correspondingly unhealthy.

Lighting. - As already indicated, the only permissible light for a day nursery is that derived from the sun, and the more plentiful this is, and the more directly it enters, the better. The night nursery may be illuminated by electricity, by gas, by an oil lamp, by a candle, or by a night light. Older writers recommend the last three, upon the supposition that gas, while burning, not only consumes a considerable proportion of the oxygen of the air, but gives off certain injurious products of combustion. This may be true to a certain extent, but the disadvantages are greatly discounted by the increase in convenience and the greater safety, so far as causing fire is concerned.