385. _What do you recommend an Hysterical lady to do?_ To improve her health by proper management; to rise early and to take a walk, that she may breathe pure and wholesome air,—indeed, she ought to live nearly half her time in the open air, exercising herself with walking, skipping, etc.; to employ her mind with botany, croquet, archery, or with any other out-door amusement; to confine herself to plain, wholesome, nourishing food; to avoid tight lacing; to eschew fashionable amusements; and, above all, not to give way to her feelings, but if she feel an attack approaching, to rouse herself. _If the fit be upon her_, the better plan is to banish all the _male_ sex from the room, and not even to have many women about her, and for those around to loosen her dress; to lay her in the center of the room, flat upon the ground, with a pillow under her head; to remove combs and pins and brooches from her person; to dash cold water upon her face; to apply cloths, or a large sponge wetted in cold water, to her head; to throw open the window, and then to leave her to herself; or at all events, to leave her with only one _female_ friend or attendant. If such be done, she will soon come round; but what is the usual practice? If a girl be in hysterics, the whole house, and perhaps the neighborhood, is roused; the room is crowded to suffocation; fears are openly expressed by those around that she is in a dangerous state; she hears what they say, and her hysterics are increased tenfold. * * * * * If this book is to be of use to mothers and to the rising generation, as I humbly hope and trust that it has been, and that it will be still more abundantly, it ought not to be listlessly read, merely as a novel, or as any other piece of fiction, but it must be thoughtfully and carefully studied, until its contents, in all its bearings, be completely mastered and understood. In conclusion, I beg to thank you for the courtesy, confidence, and attention I have received at your hands, and to express a hope that my advice, through God’s blessing, may not have been given in vain. INDEX. Ablution of a child, 108 Ablution of an infant, 19 Ablution of a youth, 274 Ablution, thorough, of a boy and girl, 274 Accidents of children, 256 Acne, or red pimples, symptoms and treatment of, 335 Advice to a mother if her infant be poorly, 105 Advice to _Mr. Paterfamilias_, 163 Ailments, the distinction between _serious_ and _slight_, 79 Ailments, slight, of infants, 77 Air and exercise for youth, 290 Air, the importance of good, 134 Air, the necessity of fresh, and changing the, 134 American ladies, health and beauty of, 342 Amusements for a child, 155 Amusements for a girl, 296 Amusements for a boy, 294 Ankles, of a babe, weak, 104 Antipathies of a child, 132 Aperients for a child, 221 Aperients, the effect of, on an infant, 83