Sea Bathing, 263.

Sea Bathing for a Nursing
Mother, 285.

Second Summer, 130, 193, 285.
Selfishness, 133.
Servants, 96, 184.

Shells as Playthings, 55.
Shipboard, On, 293.

Shoes, Pattern for, 146.
285.

Short Clothes, 350.

Sickness, Signs of, 271.

Diversion in, 209.

Sickroom, Convenience for, 212.

Sight, Errors of, 295.

Diversion of, 114.

Signs and Wonders, 29.
Singing, Early Lessons in, 45,

186.

Tobacco Smoke, 173, 192.
Toboggan Slide, Parlor, 58.
Toeing-in, 249.
Tomatoes, 93.
Tongue Depressor, 42.

46

Inflammation of, 127.
Red Papillæ on, 379.

Tonsils, Inflammation of, 41, 77.
Tooth Cough, 329.

Fever, 328.

Tonsilitis, 42.

Tonsils, Enlarged, 77.
Tooth Rash, 137.
Tower of Hannoi, 210.
Toy Receptacle, 56.

Toys, Individual Ownership of,
56.

Toy Money, 180.

Trachea, 107.

VOL. VI.

E

VERY year brings an enlargement of the circle of BABYHOOD'S readers, and there are indications that the new year upon which the magazine now enters will see its constituency increased to an extent greater in proportion than the increase of any previous year. With a larger audience a speaker usually grows more eloquent and earnest; and we promise that the fact that so many more parents are taking a deep interest in all that makes for the welfare of their little ones shall not dampen BABYHOOD's ardor in its chosen work. It is pleasant to receive continual testimony that these pages have carried substantial aid and encouragement here and there during five years, sometimes in ways least anticipated; and to know that threatened dangers have often been averted through warnings or hints herein suggested. And so much of BABYHOOD'S usefulness has been due to its occasional correspondents, that we again ask our readers to contribute to the general store such of their experiences as may be "profitable for doctrine, reproof or correction," and, in so far as journalistic possibilities admit, their observations shall be printed. Some of our newest readers, especially, may catch the inspiration, and lend a hand in making the coming year the most fruitful yet in spreading broadcast the gospel of perfect health to childhood, wherein lie such possibilities for coming manhood and womanhood.

There is a new association lately started in London which bids fair to be a great convenience to families traveling abroad. It is

No. 61.

called the "Ladies' Guide Association," and is under the auspices of several titled and distinguished persons. Its various functions are set forth in an interesting letter from its Secretary, Sara Teresa Hall, to the Boston Transcript. The society has temporary rooms at 121 Pall Mall, but soon will have new and more commodious ones opened on Trafalgar Square. Every guide recommended by the bureau must have good references and pass an examination as to her special qualification for the work she selects; for there are many branches, from the one of guiding travelers to nursing the sick, mending the wardrobe of bachelors in apartments, or taking charge of family mending. But the special feature which recommends it to our attention is the care of children. The association furnishes competent persons with whom children and nurses can be left while the older members of the family take more extensive journeys—or the guides will take children on excursions themselves, or take charge of them for an afternoon each week, or more if desired; exploring the country with them by drives or walks, or showing them the city sights and teaching them about what they see. This will meet a want often felt by delicate persons who wish to take their children abroad with them, but who have not the strength to give them the real advantages of their stay there, as well as by parents called abroad for urgent reasons, and who must take their children rather than run the risk of leaving them behind. There are already more than one hundred guides registered, and the bureau hopes soon to establish agencies

in all the principal cities of Europe. It is to be hoped that the institution will meet with the encouragement and success it deserves.

Some one has said that more could be accomplished for the world by forming safe channels for the proper direction of energy than by raising embankments to hem it in. A child will be energetic and its restless activities will express themselves in various ways. If we do not form the channels for their safe expression, the child will form them for himself. Therefore, instead of treating him to a chorus of "don'ts" when he chooses some way that is not our way, we should interest ourselves in properly directing this enterprising spirit. A gentleman not long ago, in describing his early youth, said that for a long time he fully believed that his name was "John Don't," as that was the way in which he was so commonly addressed. There must, of course, be prohibitions, but it is easy to multiply these until the little one's life will seem made up of them. "Please, mamma," said one youngster, after a morning of refused requests, "I tant don't so much, but I tan do." The boy understood his own case, which was more than his mother did.

A genuine, real, live bugaboo has come into our midst, if we may believe the New York Sun, and we can now have a depot-a sort of "clearing-house," as it were-where we may send our disobedient little ones to be frightened into obedience, at a small fee per fright. Says the Sun:

"She is a tall and rather hard-featured woman from Manchester, who displays the extraordinary sign on the door of her flat:

DISCIPLINARIAN OF CHILDREN.

6

Her sister established the particular profession,' which she follows, in London nearly two years ago, and it is now transplanted to New York.

My sister,' said the Manchester woman who has established herself here, realizing that the majority of mothers love their children too much to punish them severely, conceived the idea of setting herself up as a public disciplinarian. She is a woman of great force of character and unerring judgment in all matters concerning children, and she had extensive experience as a visiting nurse before adopting her present business. It is her idea that children are more severely punished when they are frightened than through any physical means. Το

slap a child in the heat of passion while the child is excited and unruly does not have half as salutary an effect as the more mature and considered punishment, such as imprisonment in a dark wardrobe or sending the little one to bed without supper.

"Better than this is to threaten the child with a visit from the bugaboo. The dread of the arrival of this awful personage will act as an incentive to good conduct with the most fractious children in the world. My sister is a bugaboo, and that is about what I am. The fee in England for visiting a house and disciplining the children is two shillings. This involves medical advice drawn from the fund of considerable experience in the world, besides whatever suggestions the condition of things may naturally lead up to.'

Public opinion may be safely trusted to duly land this "bugaboo" in jail upon the first infraction of the law regarding cruelty to children, or upon the dispensing of medical adin the world," unless the dispenser dispenses vice by a person of "considerable experience in the world," unless the dispenser dispenses in conformity to the laws regulating medical practice. But a truly sad feature of the case is that a leader of public opinion like the Sun should have only this comment to make:

"Mothers and fathers of families will probably be able to judge whether the idea is worth encouraging or not."

Alas, have we really so adolescent a brother right down in Printing House Square, and within a stone's throw of the place where BABY HOOD has been regularly published for five years? Oh!

With the coming of the holidays let us not forget those children less fortunate than our

own.

Now is the time to teach charity and kindliness to our little ones. Each child who

brings Christmas joys to one other, in hospital or tenement-house or sick room, is really carrying home a richer gift than any he gives, and learning a lesson which will make life more useful and beautiful. Any gift, however small, given with friendliness, not as charity, is one of the sure steps which link the rich to the poor in a brotherhood which destroys the seeds of anarchy and social discord. It is to be hoped that from each home that BABYHOOD visits, children will send out Christmas gifts, however small, to the children's hospitals or the city missions for the poor, or, when practicable, take them personally to such poor children as they may know of, for "the gift without the giver is bare."

HE good Professor Wilhelm Meyer,

found that among his patients in Copenhagen were many children who suffered severely from catarrh. Not from simple catarrh either, but from a disease which was far more pronounced, which never entirely disappeared, which resisted all ordinary means of treatment, and the effects of which upon the general health of the patients were many in number and in character most unfortunate. Some of these children had enlarged tonsils, and some had not; but even when the tonsils were large, removal of them seemed to result in very little advantage. Uncomfortable as they were under ordinary circumstances, whenever the weather was bad they would take fresh cold, and then matters would be much worse. Now Denmark is a low country, surrounded by the sea, and the climate, although not very cold, is changeable and damp. Catarrhal diseases are very common there, so that, when the season was particularly inclement, what with their coughing and snuffling by day and their loud snoring at night, there was hardly a moment of comfort or a wink of sleep either for the unfortunate sufferers or their friends. Patient after patient would come to the doctors, begging them to do something for them -"kill or cure." Many of them, poor things, were so thoroughly wretched and discouraged that they didn't much care which. So they were told to gargle their throats with salt water," and "to use the same with a nasal douche." Then they were given cod-liver oil and iron, and when the worst came to the worst, were ordered away "for a change of air." The tonics and the change of air

FIG. 1.-Boy aged seven. Mouth breather, from obstruction of the pharynx; open mouth; vacant expression; pinched nostrils; dull eyes; drooping eyelids; sunken chest; round shoulders. (Hooper.)

world; and there are very few places where, if one were to search carefully enough, he would not find peculiar-looking children breathed with their mouths open and snored at night. No doubt all readers seen many such.

While others were wasting time in s lating as to the nature and cause of this