In Chapter I (The Features Of Health), attention was directed to certain deviations from the features of health that should lead the mother or nurse to suspect the onset of disease. In addition to these, it is of great service to take into account the four seasons of the year, and to be informed of what diseases generally prevail during each.

In the late fall and early winter catarrhal affections are most apt to occur. In catarrh there is an increased secretion of mucus from the lining membrane of either the nose, the throat, the air-tubes or the digestive canal, attended by fever, loss of appetite, thirst and lassitude, with sneezing, hoarseness, cough, vomiting or diarrhoea, according to the situation of the disease.

As winter advances, the bronchial tubes, the lungs themselves and their investing membrane, the pleurae, are liable to attack, and the signs of bronchitis, pneumonia, or pleurisy may be developed.

In the changeable weather of spring, together with the catarrhal inflammatory disorders already mentioned, epidemics of measles, scarlet fever, and chicken-pox are most prevalent; while during the summer months disorders of the bowels, such as diarrhcea, "summer complaint" and cholera infantum, swell the mortality lists of the larger cities.

Again, the influence of any hereditary tendency to disease should always be present in the mother's mind, as this not only makes her alive to the possibility of the onset of illness and leads her to seek medical advice in time, but also induces her to shield anxiously her child from known exciting causes, and to adopt hygienic measures calculated to overcome the constitutional predisposition.

In considering the question of emergencies, under which term will be included both accidents and certain conditions of disease, no reference will be made to the management of serious disorders. These, even in their earliest stages, must receive the attention of a physician.