I think this is the proper place in which to mention a very injurious fallacy as regards what are called infantile ailments. It is a fact that children of tender years are more likely to be attacked by certain ailments, of which measles is as good an illustration as any, simply because they are weak, and these, in certain states of the atmosphere, especially in villages where sanitation is utterly neglected, are apt to become epidemic, carrying away to their little graves victims that are not strong enough to fight against the trouble, for Nature’s law that the fittest shall survive is fixed and immutable. But it is a great mistake to believe that children _must_ have such ailments, and the sooner such an error of belief is written down and eradicated the better. Scarlatina is another ailment which often breaks out in villages, especially in Board schools; and remembering the utter want of fresh air and cleanliness which prevails in these seminaries, one cannot wonder. During an epidemic of this sort the school is closed, and the children, sick or well, go to their squalid dens and unhealthy huts to live or die, as the case may be, for they “break up” at school only to hatch out the seeds of illness already sown in their systems. But your well-fed, well-cared-for children, and such as sleep at night in fresh air without more than sufficient bed-clothing, do not succumb to these disorders, be they ever so rife. Surely, then, prevention is better than cure. I shall now mention one or two of these so-called infantile troubles that some young mothers who read this brief paper may know a little more about them and their causes. I advise everyone who has the care of children to keep in the house in its little case a clinical thermometer. The family doctor will be very pleased, I am sure, to show parents how to use it, and whenever the temperature mounts over a hundred the physician should be called in. _Measles._—The ailment is ushered in somewhat similarly to a bad cold, and often passes at first for a touch of influenza. But the girl is feverish with loss of appetite, and no heart for play. Then about the third day come out the rose-coloured spots, first on the brow. They are so close together as to almost coalesce. The fever now gets worse, and the case is one for the doctor to superintend; but the parents ask the question: “Will she get over it?” I am glad to answer in the affirmative, only that nasty wee word “if” comes in—_if_ the case does not become complicated, for bronchitis may ensue, or inflammation of the lungs itself, and then there is great danger. And bear this in mind; the child that has been treated while in health in a common-sense way, not “plotted,” over-coddled, or over-crammed as to food, has by far and away the greatest chance of getting over this ailment or scarlatina either. _Scarlatina._—When this becomes epidemic in small towns and badly-drained villages, the Angel of Death has indeed spread his wings on the blast.