Certainly I am not advocating the doctrine of a mother _treating serious_ diseases; far from it, it is not her province, except in certain cases of extreme urgency, where a medical man cannot be procured, and where delay might be death; but I do insist upon the necessity of her knowing the _symptoms_ of disease. My belief is, that if parents were better informed on such subjects, many children's lives might be saved, much suffering averted, and sorrow spared. The fact is, the knowledge of the symptoms of disease is, to a mother, almost a sealed book. If she were better acquainted with these matters, how much more useful would she be in a sick-room, and how much more readily would she enter into the plans and views of the medical man! By her knowledge of the symptoms, and by having his advice in time, she would nip disease in the bud, and the fight might end in favour of life, for "sickness is just a fight between life and death."--_Geo. M'Donald._ It is really lamentable to contemplate the amount of ignorance that still exists among mothers in all that appertains to the diseases of children; although, fortunately, they are beginning to see and to feel the importance of gaining instruction on such subjects; but the light is only dawning. A writer of the _Medical Times and Gazette_ makes the following remarks, which somewhat bear on the subject in question. He observes--"In spite of the knowledge and clear views possessed by the profession on all that concerns the management of children, no fact is more palpable than that the most grievous ignorance and incompetency prevail respecting it among the public. We want some means of making popular the knowledge which is now almost restricted to medical men, or, at most, to the well-educated classes." In the earlier editions of this work I did not give the _treatment_ of any serious diseases, however urgent. In the eight last editions, I have been induced, for reasons I will presently state, to give the _treatment_ of some of the more urgent _serious_ diseases, when a medical man cannot instantly be procured, and where delay might be death.