The best kind of carriage is none too good for the load it is destined to carry. It should run smoothly, without jolt or jar; its wheels should be provided with rubber tires and kept from creaking by the frequent application of some mineral oil, as sewing-machine oil; the bed must be soft and comfortable, lateral support being given to the body by two long, narrow and soft pillows; the infant must never be strapped down, the feet must be kept properly covered and warm, and the parasol always must be at hand, and so arranged as to protect from wind, and shade the tender eyes from bright sunlight.

While the carriage is a convenience to the nurse, it is never to be regarded as a place of security for the child, to be left on the sidewalk or in windy places while the wheeler exchanges gossip with fellow-nurses or enters a house to visit friends. However good its springs may be, they are never easy enough to allow of rude jolting or of mounting a raised curbstone by mere dint of hammering and muscle force.

After the age of nine or ten months a healthy child will begin to creep; at the end of a year he will make efforts to stand, and from four to eight months later will be able to walk by himself. Children, however, present great differences in this respect, and a delay of a few months must not be considered abnormal. Second children are usually more active than those born first, since they imitate and are encouraged by the example of their elders.

As soon as efforts at creeping are made there need be no fear that insufficient exercise will be taken; the care should be, rather, to prevent overfatigue, as the baby, delighted by its new-found powers, will be inclined to exert them all day long.

The question arises at this stage whether or not the nursery floor is a permissible field for exercise. This depends entirely upon the child's health, the state of the weather and the condition of the nursery. Remember always that the stratum of air next to the floor is much lower in temperature than the middle or upper. In some of the biting days of winter it becomes so cold as to make the feet and legs of an adult uncomfortable, and completely to chill a child, who, in creeping, has his whole body in it for long periods. Therefore, should a child be delicate, should he have either bronchitis or catarrh of the digestive tract, should the weather be very cold, or should the heating of the chamber be imperfect, it is better to keep him off the floor and let him take his exercises on the nurse's bed, which may be stripped down to the mattress for the purpose. Colds are contracted and many more are protracted by playing on the floor in winter.

Many nurses, and some mothers, have an idea that a child should walk at a certain fixed age, and when this time arrives, put into practice various plans for teaching the process. Beware of this, for go-carts, leading-strings, baby-jumpers and all contrivances of this ilk have a tendency to flatten the chest, distort the spine, or deform the legs. The proper and only safe plan is to let the child teach himself to walk. This he readily does, first through the act of creeping, in which he exercises every muscle of the body without throwing undue weight upon the soft bones. When by this exercise he has sufficiently strengthened the muscles, he will instinctively seek to do more; first in an effort to get upon the feet, in which, though failure occurs over and over again, he perseveres until successful in standing with support, then without, and finally ends in walking.

The first acquisition of the power of walking should not be overtaxed, and for a month or more the carriage is the best means of airing; but as soon as sufficient strength is acquired for active exercise - a somewhat variable age - the child should walk out and pass as much time as the weather and nursery requirements permit in the open air. Set walks, however, are an abomination to -the child as well as to the adult. City-bred children suffer in this respect, as they are too frequently sent out merely to walk a certain number of blocks, or for a fixed time, and it is no wonder that they quickly tire of such exercise and prefer their nurseries to the streets. The only way to avoid this is to give an object to the outing, as, for example, a household errand or the purchase of a cheap toy. In the country, on the other hand, children run about and amuse themselves according to their own pleasure, visit the garden or the farm, and involuntarily take that kind and degree of exercise best calculated to promote the growth and development of their bodies.

Delicate children preeminently require pure air and an outdoor life, although many of them are too feeble to take sufficient exercise on foot. For such, when the parents' purse allows, a donkey or a pony should be provided. Driving may give sufficient exercise at first; but as soon as enough strength is gained, riding is to be preferred, as it keeps the mind more healthfully occupied, strengthens the muscles, expands the chest and produces a healthy appetite and digestion. Children who are not allowed sufficient out-door life because they take cold easily, should live in cool rooms, wear less heavy underclothing to insure a dry skin, and have the body, particularly the chest and back, sponged once daily with cool water - 50°-60° F. - or, in the case of young infants, 65°-70° F.

In the earlier years of life the girl and boy play together and take nearly the same sort and amount of exercise. As time goes on, however, and the girl approaches nearer and nearer to maidenhood, she too frequently begins to look upon her brother's game of ball or romping play as too rough, and spends a constantly increasing time indoors acquiring the manners and the sedentary habits of her elders of the same sex.

This tendency is often encouraged by parents, who prefer polished manners to physical strength, and, above all, dislike their daughters becoming "tom-boys." One must admit that polished manners are a great attraction; but as a woman has more important duties than shining in a drawing-room, they are of little intrinsic value when uncom-bined with the fine carriage and good figure which belong to robust health.

In regard to the carriage and figure, it is useless to try to assist their formation by the aid of braces and stiff corsets. The latter are especially to be condemned. Unless most cautiously used, they induce undue contraction of the lower part of the chest and displace the solid organs (liver especially) of the abdomen, interfering primarily with respiration and digestion, and secondarily with the general processes of nutrition. An erect carriage can be better secured by attention to the general health; suitable diet; regulation of the bowels; cold bathing and sponging, and exercise short of fatigue, not of particular muscles only, but of the whole frame.

My advice, therefore, is to let the girls join in the boys' play. By this plan the latter gain, because they are naturally forced to be more gentle, and the former, because their rapidly-developing frames get the requisite amount of exercise. It is well, however, to curb the ambition of the girls to equal the athletic powers of the boys, for their muscular strength is less. Without letting the subjects know, keep a strict lookout upon the general morals, for it is absurd to shut one's eyes to this risk in mingling the sexes in later childhood and youth.

Amusements. - A child's life must be devoted to the cultivation of his mind and his body, an undue development of either resulting in an incomplete manhood or womanhood.

After writing the above sentence I was called from my desk to the bedside of a little sufferer, and on my way met two boys, both about nine years of age, and both patients of mine. The first had a spirituelle face, and spoke to me with a tip of the hat and the grace of a little Chesterfield; but his features were pinched, so it seemed to me, while his face was anxious and his legs were hardly thick enough to carry his body. Nevertheless, his arms were full of books, which, as I had curiosity enough to examine, I found to be a Greek grammar, Caesar, and the elements of algebra. I felt sorry for the overtaxed little brain, and he showed no symptoms of joy at release from school, for he was on his way home to study all his books, to get the teacher's approval and a high mark on the morrow. Scarcely a block away I met my next little friend; his cheeks were rosy, his arms and legs sturdy, and his eyes brimful of health and fun. The burden of books he bore was light, and his teacher probably considered him stupid; but his simple "Hello, Doctor, I am off for a game of ball this afternoon," and his jolly smile were more pleasing than all the learning of the first little gentleman.

The lesson taught by these two children is very plain to my mind, and the question which will come out ahead in the long run is easily answered; for health has no handicap in the race of life.

It is right, 'of course, to let the children study - after the sixth year; but the brain is not to be cultivated at the expense of the body. In other words, our boys and girls must have plenty of play.

The subject of childish diversion is a broad one, and it is only possible to outline it here. Let the healthy child play as much as possible in the open air, and let him be as active as he pleases; for his own sensations will tell him when to stop and when to begin again. The only cautions are not to overlook him too much; to let him make as much noise as he wishes out of doors and in his own kingdom - the nursery; to make him play those games which will exercise all the muscles of the body equally, and to guard him, when heated, from drinking ice-water or from lying on the cold, damp ground, or sitting in a draught. It must be remembered, also, that play is the child's business, so that during convalescence from a debilitating disease it must be regulated according to the strength.

Before closing this chapter a protest must be entered against roller-skates, as they are dangerous to life and limb. Bicycles with wheels of equal size are not objectionable, if the proper upright position on the seat be insisted upon and if the temptation to too long and too fast riding be resisted.