In The First Year Of Infancy, many expressions of the tender organs are to be considered only as efforts or manifestations of power.

1070. We observe, for instance, that a child, as soon as it is undressed or disencumbered from swaddling clothes, moves its arms and legs, and often makes a variety of strong exertions; yet no reasonable person would suppose that such attempts arise from a preternatural or oppressive state of the little agent.

1071. It is, therefore, equally absurd to draw an unfavourable inference from every inarticulate cry; because, in most instances, these vociferating sounds imply the effort which children necessarily make to display the strength of their lungs, and exercise the organs of respiration.

1072. Nature has wisely ordained that by these very efforts the power and utility of functions so essential to life should be developed, and rendered more perfect with every inspiration.

1073. Hence it follows, that those over-anxious parents or nurses, who continually endeavor to prevent infants from crying, do them a material injury; for, by such imprudent management, their children seldom or never acquire a perfect form of the breast, while the foundation is laid in the pectoral vessels for obstructions, and other diseases.

1074. Independently of any particular causes, the cries of children, with regard to their general effects, are highly beneficial and necessary.

1075. In the first period of life, such exertions are the almost only exercise of the infant: thus the circulation of the blood, and all the other fluids, is rendered more uniform; digestion, nutrition, and the growth of the body, are thereby promoted; and the different secretions, together with the very important office of the skin, or in-sensible perspiration, are duly performed.

1076. Hence it is extremely improper to consider every noise of an infant as a claim upon our assistance, and to intrude either food or drink, with a view to satisfy its supposed wants. By such injudicious conduct, children readily acquire the injurious habit of demanding things, or nutriments, at improper times, and without necessity; their digestion becomes impaired; and consequently, at this early age, the whole mass of the fluids is gradually corrupted.

1077. If, however, the mother or nurse has no recourse to the administration of aliment, they at least remove the child from its couch, carry it about, frequently in the middle of the night, and thus expose it to repeated colds, which are in their effects infinitely more dangerous than the most violent cries.

1078. We learn from daily experience, that children who have been the least indulged thrive much better, unfold all their faculties quicker, and acquire more muscular strength and vigour of mind than those who have been constantly favoured, and treated by their parents with the most solicitous attention: bodily weakness and mental imbecility are "the usual attributes of the latter.

1079. The first and principal rule of education ought never to be forgotten; that man is intended to be a free and independent agent; that his moral and physical powers ought to be spontaneously developed; and that he should a« soon as possible be made acquainted with the nature and uses of all his faculties, in order to attain that degree of perfection which is consistent with the structure of his organs; and that he is not originally designed for what we endeavor to make of him by artificial aid.

1080. Hence the greatest art in educating children consists in continual vigilance over all their actions, without ever giving them an opportunity of discovering that they are guided and watched.

1081. There aRe, however, instances in which the loud complaints of infants deserve our attention.

1082. Thus, if their cries be unusually violent and long continued, we may conclude that they are troubled with colic pains; if, on such occasions, they move their arms and hands repeatedly towards the face, painful teething may account for the cause; and, if other morbid phenomena accompany their cries, or if these expressions be repeated at certain periods of the day, we ought not to slight them, but endeavour to discover the proximate or remote causes.

1083. Infants cannot sleep too long; and it is a favourable symptom, when they enjoy a calm and long-continued rest, of which they should by no means be deprived, as this is the greatest support granted to them by nature.

1084. A child lives, comparatively, much faster than an adult; its blood flows more rapidly; every stimulus operates more powerfully; and not only its constituent parts, but its vital resources, also, are more speedily consumed.

1085. Sleep promotes a more calm and uniform circulation of the blood; it facilitates the assimilation of the nutriment received, and contributes towards a more copious and regular deposition of alimentary matter, while the horizontal posture is the most favourable to the growth and development of the child.

1086. Sleep ought to be in proportion to the age of the infant. After the age of six months, the periods of sleep as well as all other animal functions may in some degree be regulated; yet even then, a child should be suffered to sleep the whole night, and several hours both in the morning and in the afternoon.

1087. Mothers and nurses should endeavour to accustom infants, from the time of their birth, to sleep in the night preferably to the day, and for this purpose they ought to remove all external impressions which may dis-turb their rest, suck as noise,light, etc., but especially not to obey every call for taking them up, and giving food at improper times.

1088. After the second year of their age, they will not instinctively require to sleep in the forenoon, though, after dinner, it may be continued to the third and fourth year of life, if the child shows a particular inclination to repose; because, till that age, the full half of its time may safely be allotted to sleep.

1089. From that period, however, it ought to be shortened for the space of one hour with every succeeding year; so that a child of seven years old may sleep about eight, and not exceeding nine hours; this proportion may be continued to the age of adolescence, and even manhood.

1090. To awaken children from their sleep with a noise, or in an impetuous manner, is extremely injudicious and hurtful: nor is it proper to carry them from a dark room immediately into a glaring light, or against a dazzling wall; for the sudden impression of light debilitates the organs of vision, and lays the foundation of weak eyes, from early infancy.

1091. A bed-room, or nursery, ought to be spacious and lofty, dry, airy, and not inhabited through the day.

1092. No servants, if possible, should be suffered to sleep in the same room, and no limen or washed clothes should ever be hung there to dry, as they contaminate the air in which so considerable a portion of infantine life must be spent.

1093. The consequences attending a vitiated atmosphere in such rooms, are various, and often fatal.

i094. Feather-beds should be banished from nurseries, as they are an unnatural and debilitating contrivance.

1095. The windows should never be opened at night, but left open the whole day, in fine, clear weather.

1096. Lastly, the bedstead must not be placed too low on the floor; nor is it proper to let children sleep on a couch which is made without any elevation from the ground; because the most mephitic and pernicious stratum of air in an apartment, is that within one or two feet from the floor, while the most wholesome, or atmospheric air, is in the middle of the room, and the inflammable gas ascends to the top.