The first chapter treats of the management of the infant from the moment of its birth; and, although the care of the infant is not intrusted to the mother at this time, it is very important that she should know just how it should be managed, and she will then be able to instruct her nurse, and prevent her carrying into execution many of the hobbies of which old nurses are often very fond. The most of them are founded on error, and may be of the greatest injury to the infant at this tender period of its existence. For instance, the author tells us that the infant should be put to the mother’s breast soon after its birth, and should receive food of no other kind. Now there is the strongest desire on the part of many nurses to feed the child with some one of the many preparations used for this purpose as soon as it is dressed, or, at any rate, before the mother’s milk makes its appearance—forgetting that nature has made no mistake in her affairs here, and will not be interfered with without requiring the poor victim to pay the penalty;—and so we find that if the child’s stomach be filled with pap, gruel, or anything of the kind, the result will be acidity, griping, colic, and vomiting, and you will have made a bad beginning by interfering with nature, instead of a good one by leaving her alone. In very many cases the harm is done by trying to assist nature, and, on account of an ignorance of the natural laws, the intended assistance becomes a positive interference; and it is in view of this fact that the author tells us what not to do, as well as what to do; and whenever the mother is in doubt as to her course, she has only to turn to the chapter treating of the subject under consideration, and her mind is at once relieved. Full instruction is given in regard to the clothing of infants. And nothing is more important; for one would suppose we should find deaths from pulmonary complaints, such as pneumonia and bronchitis, more frequent in adult life,—our occupations being of such a nature as to constantly expose us to the vicissitudes of the weather,—but the opposite is the fact, and the mortality from these diseases is far greater during childhood. The sources from which animal heat is derived, are smallest at birth, and increase till the child is full grown; but, instead of realizing this fact, and protecting the child with sufficient clothing, it is supposed to be comfortable when large portions of the body are entirely uncovered, while the parents find much more clothing requisite for both comfort and health—and the result is that many perish, and others are compelled to go on through life with impaired constitutions, for the condition of the pulmonary organs in after life depends, to a very great extent, on the treatment the person received during the tender period of infancy. “’Tis the work Of many a dark hour and of many a prayer To bring the heart back from an infant gone.”—N. P. WILLIS.