Strict attention to the rules of health is the means to prevent scrofula. Books, unless as an amusement, ought to be discarded. The patient must almost live in the open air, and his residence should be a healthy country place, where the air is dry and bracing; if it be at a farm-house, in a salubrious neighborhood, so much the better. In selecting a house for a patient predisposed to scrofula, _good pure water should be an important requisite_—indeed for every one who values his health. Early rising in such a case is most beneficial. Wine, spirits, and all fermented liquors ought to be avoided. Beef-steaks and mutton-chops in abundance, and plenty of milk and farinaceous food—such as rice, sago, arrow-root, etc.—should be his diet. Scrofula, if the above rules be strictly and perseveringly followed, may be warded off; but there must be no half measures, no trying to serve two masters—to cultivate at the same time the health and the intellect. The brain, until the body becomes strong, must _not_ be taxed. “You may prevent scrofula by care; but that some children are originally predisposed to the disease there cannot be the least doubt, and in such cases the education and the habits of youth should be so directed as to ward off a complaint the effects of which are so frequently fatal.” 356. _But suppose the disease to be already formed, what must then be done?_ The plan recommended above must still be pursued, not by fits and starts, but steadily and continuously, for it is a complaint that requires a vast deal of patience and great perseverance. Warm and cold sea bathing in such a case is generally most beneficial. In a patient with confirmed scrofula it will of course be necessary to consult a skillful and experienced doctor. But do not allow, without a second opinion, any plan to be adopted that will weaken the system, which is already too much depressed. No, rather build up the body by good nourishing diet (as previously recommended), by cod-liver oil, by a dry, bracing atmosphere, such as either Brighton, or Ramsgate, Llandudno; or, if the lungs be delicate, by a more sheltered coast, such as either St. Leonard’s or Torquay. Let no active purging, no mercurials, no violent, desperate remedies be allowed. If the patient cannot be cured _without_ them, I am positive that he will not be cured _with_ them. But do not despair; many scrofulous patients are cured by time and by judicious treatment. But if desperate remedies are to be used, the poor patient had better _by far_ be left to Nature. “Let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.” 357. _Have you any remarks to make on a girl stooping?_