With regard to the best powder to dust an infant with, there is nothing better for general use than starch—the old-fashioned starch _made of wheaten flour_—reduced by means of a pestle and mortar to a fine powder; or Violet Powder, which is nothing more than finely-powdered starch scented, and which may be procured of any respectable chemist. Some mothers are in the habit of using white lead; but as this is a poison, it ought _on no account_ to be resorted to. In one case related by Koop (_Journ. de Pharm._, xx. 603), a child was destroyed by it. 9. _If the parts about the groin and fundament be excoriated, what is then the best application?_ After sponging the parts with tepid _rain_ water, holding him over his tub, and allowing the water from a well-filled sponge to stream over the parts, and then drying them with a soft napkin (not rubbing, but gently dabbing with the napkin), there is nothing better than dusting the parts frequently with finely-powdered Native Carbonate of Zinc. The best way of using this powder is, tying up a little of it in a piece of muslin, and then gently dabbing the parts with it. Remember excoriations are generally owing to the want of water—to the want of an abundance of water. An infant who is every morning well soused and well swilled with water, seldom suffers either from excoriations or from any other of the numerous skin diseases. Cleanliness, then, is the grand preventive of, and the best remedy for, excoriations. Naaman the Syrian was ordered “to wash and be clean,” and he was healed, “and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” This was, of course, a miracle; but how often does water, without any special intervention, act miraculously both in preventing and in curing skin diseases! An infant’s clothes, napkins especially, ought never to be washed with soda; the washing of napkins with soda is apt to produce excoriations and breakings-out. “As washerwomen often deny that they use soda, it can be easily detected by simply soaking a clean napkin in fresh water and then tasting the water; if it be brackish and salt, soda has been employed.” [Communicated by Sir Charles Locock to the Author.] 10. _Who is the proper person to wash and dress the babe?_