Putting aside the special danger of infantile diarrhœa, young infants generally do well in hot climates, which are in many ways suitable to their low powers of resistance to cold. Some writers, very competent to speak on the subject, are indeed of opinion that very young infants do better in India than in cold or temperate climates; and perhaps this may be the case as regards breast-fed children, for, the air temperature being but little below that of the body, they are almost entirely protected from the coughs and colds of all sorts that do so much damage at home, and lead to the poor children being confined to a stuffy atmosphere instead of enjoying the enormous advantage of unlimited fresh air, of which an infant requires proportionately even more than an adult. On this account never allow a nurse, however experienced she may be in her own conceit, to cover a child’s face with a handkerchief even out of doors, as the re-breathing of air already polluted by passing through the lungs is one of the most frequent causes of illness in human beings of all ages, and if the air outside be really so cold as to be harmful, the child will be better indoors, in a well-warmed and ventilated room, than outside, if half stifled in this silly fashion. If she has any lingering doubts on the matter, let the mother borrow an ambulance, and try how much fresh air can be got, lying flat on the back, with a handkerchief spread over the face, and a fussy old woman in attendance to replace it should it chance to get disarranged. The dangers of that abomination, the “baby’s comforter,” are elsewhere adverted to, but to show that the writer is by no means singular in his opinion, the following extract from _Science Siftings_ may be read with advantage:-- “Most expert observers of the infectious nature of consumption have stated that the bacilli almost invariably enter the system through the nose or mouth, the respiratory system, in fact. Yet there are others who state that the milk drunk by infants is a chief cause of infection. But a new and deeply interesting theory is put forward by Drs. J. O. Symes and T. Fisher in the _British Medical Journal_. All day long, they write, babies are sucking an indiarubber comforter, and it no sooner drops on to the dirty floor than it is hastily picked up and thrust again into the mouth of the infant. Older children also, as they crawl, take up every article they can lay hold of and put it into their mouths, to the danger of which their dirt-begrimed cheeks bear witness. The moral is obvious.” Native attendants are especially fond of the contrivance, and hence it is desirable to emphasise its dangers in a work on the present subject.