_What to do_.--If a babe, after the first few months, were held out, and if, at regular intervals, he were put upon his chair, costiveness would not so much prevail. It is wonderful how soon the bowels, in the generality of cases, by this simple plan, may be brought into a regular state. Besides, it inducts an infant into clean habits, I know many careful mothers who have accustomed their children, after the first three months, to do without diapers altogether. It causes at first a little trouble, but that trouble is amply repaid by the good consequences that ensue; among which must be named the dispensing with such encumbrances as diapers. Diapers frequently chafe, irritate, and gall the tender skin of a baby. But they cannot of course, at an early age be dispensed with, unless a mother have great judgment, sense, tact, and perseverance, to bring her little charge into the habit of having his bowels relieved and his bladder emptied every time he is either held out or put upon his chair. Before giving an infant a particle of aperient medicine, try, if the bowels are costive, the effect of a little _raw_ sugar and water, either half a tea-spoonful of raw sugar dissolved in a tea-spoonful or two of water, or give him, out of your fingers, half a tea-spoonful of raw sugar to eat. I mean by _raw_ sugar, not the white, but the pure and unadulterated sugar, and which you can only procure from a respectable grocer. If you are wise, you will defer as long as you can giving an aperient. If you once begin, and continue it for a while, opening medicine becomes a dire necessity, and then woe betide the poor unfortunate child. Or, give a third of a tea-spoonful of honey, early in the morning, occasionally. Or administer a warm water enema--a tablespoonful, or more, by means of a 2 oz. India Rubber Enema Bottle. _What NOT to do_.--There are two preparations of mercury I wish to warn you against administering of your own accord, viz.--(1) Calomel, and a milder preparation called (2) Grey-powder (mercury with chalk). It is a common practice in this country to give calomel, on account of the readiness with which it can be administered it being small in quantity, and nearly tasteless. Grey powder also, is, with many mothers, a favourite in the nursery. It is a medicine of immense power--either for good or for evil, in certain cases it is very valuable, but in others, and in the great majority, it is very detrimental. This practice, then, of a mother giving mercury, whether in the form either of calomel or of grey powder, cannot be too strongly reprobated, as the frequent administration either of the one or of the other weakens the body, predisposes it to cold, and frequently excites king's-evil--a disease too common in this country. Calomel and grey-powder, then, ought never to be administered unless ordered by a medical man.