CHILDREN.

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ploying their children within doors, ought to allow them suf-ficient time for active diversions. This would both encour-age them to do more work and prevent their constitutionsfrom being hurt.

Some imagine that exercise within doors is sufficient ; butthey are greatly mistaken. One hour spent in running, orany other exercise without doors, is worth ten within. Whenchildren cannot go abroad, they may indeed be exercised athome. .The best method of doing this is to make them runabout in a long room or dance. This last kind of exercise,if not carried to excess, is of excellent service to young people.It cheers the spirits, promotes perspiration, strengthens thelimbs, &c. I knew an eminent physician who used to saythat he made his children dance instead of giving them phy-sic. It were well if more people would follow his example.

The cold bath may be considered as an aid to exercise.By it the body is braced and strengthened, the circulation andsecretions promoted, and were it conducted with prudence,many diseases, as the rickets, scrofula, &c, might be pre-vented- The ancients, who took every method to renderchildren hardy and robust, were no strangers to the use ofthe cold bath ; and, if we may credit report, the practice ofimmersing children daily in cold water must have been verycommon among our ancestors.

The greatest objection to the use of the cold bath arisesfrom the superstitious prejudices of nurses. These are oftenso strong that it is impossible to bring them to make a properuse of it. I have known some of them who would not dry achild's skin after bathing it, lest it should destroy the effectof the water. Others will even put clothes dipped in thewater upon the child, and either put it to bed or suffer it to goabout in that condition. Some believe that the whole virtueof the water depends upon its being dedicated to a particularsaint ; while others place their confidence in a certain num-ber of dips, as three, seven, nine, or the like; and the worldcould not persuade them, if these do not succeed, to try it alittle longer. Thus, by the whims of nurses, children losethe benefit of the cold bath, and the hopes of the physicianfrom that medicine are often frustrated.

We ought not, however, entirely to set aside the use of thecold bath because some nurses make a wrong use of it.Every child, when in health, should at least have its extremi-ties daily washed in cold water. This is a partial use of the

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