has not been dried well when changing the napkin, or allowed to go too long after the napkin is wet. Indigestion, and a consequent acidity of the discharges may cause excoriation of the skin, and this will need a change in the food or the proper medicine to

correct.

A baby does not cry without cause. It may be spoiled into crying to be tended, but this is easily distinguished from a sick cry, or a fretted cry from discomfort.

A baby should have plenty of water and fresh air; two of the "freest" things and yet we stint the little one in them. It should be given water every day several times, and it often cries for want of it. It should be taken out into the fresh air every day when pleasant, and many times allowed to take its One of the healthiest, ever knew, though be

nap in the open air. most robust babies I ginning life as a little puny thing, was put into its little carriage and wrapped up warmly, and wheeled out on the front porch for its nap twice daily. A light cover was thrown over the head of the carriage to protect the child from draughts.

If the baby is bottle-fed and constipated, a small pinch of salt put into its food at each feeding will often effect a cure.

Dress your little one warmly enough but not too warm, keep it dry and comfortable, feed it properly, do not toss it about, or disturb its sleep, and you will be rewarded with a healthy and comfortable child that will daily be a greater and greater delight and blessing.

CHAPTER XXI.

GUARDING AGAINST SECRET VICE.

The Mother's Preparation as Guide and Protector of Her Children.-Safeguards for Tiny Babyhood.Cleanliness, Regularity, Chafing, Pin Worms, Servants, Nurse Girls, etc., etc.-How to Teach and Guard Them During Childhood.-Safeguarding the Children with Knowledge.-Inborn Curiosity Concerning Physical Mysteries. How to Meet these Questions.-Sleeping Alone.-How to Correct Vice where it Exists.-The Duty of Physicians to the Public.-Symptoms which call for Parental Watchfulness.-Results of Secret Vice.-Rewards of Parental Vigilance.

How shall the mother prepare herself that she may be the guide and protector of her children past this dangerous shoal, is a question that exercises every true woman's heart. In view of the myriads of temptations, we are led to exclaim here, as in the contemplation of many other difficulties in child training, "Who is sufficient for these things?"

The carefulness in guarding against the entrance of this evil should begin back in tiny babyhood. Perfect cleanliness, the

proper adjustment of the napkin, and great care in the baths, lest by roughness in washing an irritation be set up; all these things must be thought about and watched carefully. The food, regularity of habits, daily evacuation of the bowels, all have their share in keeping the child in a healthy condition that precludes the unnatural state which invites the habit.

A chafed condition of the skin, which causes itching and consequent rubbing of the parts, may be the beginning of the habit before the child is old enough to be reasoned with, or able to understand the wrong and danger involved.

In little girls pin worms, which work forward into the vagina, and cause an irritation, also a leucorrhoeal discharge, even in babyhood, may so irritate that the habit is formed before the mother is aware of it. There have been instances of servant girls, who are left in the care of the little ones, or unscrupulous nurse girls, teaching the little ones the habit to keep them quiet, so that they need not be troubled with their care.

Mothers need to be Argus-eyed, to guard their babies from all the evils that beset them; and having carried them past babyhood into

inquiring childhood, nothing else is so potent in shielding them from the evil, as wholesome truth taught in a sweet motherly way. While yet very young, they can be taught that the organs are to be used by them only for throwing off the waste water of the system, but that they are so closely related to other parts of the body that handling them at all will hurt them and make them sick. Tell them that little children, sometimes when they do not know this, form the habit of handling themselves and as a result they become listless and sick, and many times idiotic and insane, or develop epileptic fits. This will so impress them that they will not fall easily into the bad way; for it is, more often than otherwise, an ignorant curiosity that leads them into the danger.

When mothers understand what a safeguard intelligent teaching of truth is to their children, they will prepare themselves for it, aud will so keep their boys and girls in their confidence that they will have no secret from them. When they feel and know that they can come to mother with all their enquiries, and get honest recognition and teaching, they will not care to go elsewhere when curiosity is aroused and they desire knowledge on any point. This sweet confidence be