An experiment made by Dr. Hunter upon two of his children illustrates, in a striking manner, the pernicious effects of even a small portion of intoxicating liquors in persons of this tender age. To one of the children he gave, every day after dinner, a full glass of sherry: the child was five years of age, and unaccustomed to the use of wine. To the other child, of nearly the same age, and equally unused to wine, he gave an orange. In the course of a week, a very marked difference was perceptible in the pulse, urine, and evacuations from the bowels of the two children. The pulse of the first was raised, the urine high coloured, and the evacuations destitute of their usual quantity of bile. In the other child, no change whatever was produced. He then reversed the experiment, giving to the first the orange, and to the second the wine, and the results corresponded: the child who had the orange continued well, and the system of the other got straightway into disorder, as in the first experiment.[FN#15] [FN#15] Marcellin relates an instance of seven children in a family whose bowels became infested with worms, from the use of stimulants. They were cured by substituting water for the pernicious beverage. In this town, spirits, particularly gin, are given to infants and children to a frightful extent. I have seen an old Irish woman give diluted spirits to the infant just born. A short time since one of those dram-drinking children, about eight years of age, was brought into one of our hospitals. The attendants, from its emaciated appearance, considered the child was dying from mere starvation; which was true enough in a certain sense. Food was accordingly offered and pressed upon it, but the boy would not even put it to his lips. The next day it was discovered that the mother brought the child very nearly a pint of gin, every drop of which before night he had consumed. It is easy to discover when children have been fed upon spirits: they are always emaciated; have a lean, yellow, haggard look: the eyes sunk, the lips pale, and the teeth discoloured, the cadaverous aspect of the countenance being most fearful. They are continually suffering from bowel complaints and convulsive disorders; which, under these circumstances, terminate invariably in an early death. Sect. IV. SLEEP. DURING INFANCY.--For three or four weeks after birth the infant sleeps more or less, day and night, only waking to satisfy the demands of hunger; at the expiration of this time, however, each interval of wakefulness grows longer, so that it sleeps less frequently, but for longer periods at a time.