The companions chosen by the child at school or the youth at college are of extreme importance to the growth of character, and the exercise of influence over this choice, without interfering with the freedom of the child, is one of the greatest aids that a parent can render it. The intimacy between those who are entering upon life together, and who have the same future before them, must necessarily increase and become a great fact in the young life; but it is essential that the parent should know who these companions are, and the character of the influence that will be exerted. If the parent be the friend of his child, he can also be the friend of his friend. Tact and sympathy are of the utmost value in welcoming and attracting the youthful friends, and the wise parental care thus exercised towards offspring, extends necessarily beyond the individual home. The attention of the parent must always be ready to observe the signs of growing sex in sons as well as daughters. Numberless indications, which none but the mother can note, warn her of that approaching crisis of early manhood, now so fatal to our youth. No wise mother observes this change without a deepening of respect and tenderness, and of infinite maternal yearning to strengthen, guide, and ennoble her man-child. At this epoch is often thrown upon her an immense responsibility--a responsibility so grave that it may involve the ruin or salvation of her son--viz., the choice of his physician. The importance of this choice cannot be over-estimated by the parent. The young are easily alarmed about their health; they are at the same time utterly unable to judge of their own condition; they have no knowledge to guide them, no experience by which to measure their symptoms. They place absolute confidence in their medical adviser; his opinion and advice outweigh all other considerations and supersede all other counsel. The parent must therefore realize that when a physician is selected for the growing lad, an authority is placed over him which may become stronger than the parental influence, and be henceforth the most powerful support or antagonist in the moral as well as physical guidance of the son.