I have seen a child tossed up nearly to the ceiling! Can anything be more cruel or absurd? Violent tossing of a young babe ought never to be allowed: it only frightens him, and has been known to bring on convulsions. He should be gently moved up and down (not tossed): such exercise causes a proper circulation of the blood, promotes digestion, and soothes to sleep. He must always be kept quiet immediately after taking the breast: if he be tossed _directly_ afterward, it interferes with his digestion, and is likely to produce sickness. SLEEP. 77. _Ought the infant’s sleeping apartment to be kept warm?_ The lying-in room is generally kept too warm, its heat being, in many instances, more that of an oven than of a room. Such a place is most unhealthy, and is fraught with danger both to the mother and the baby. We are not, of course, to run into an opposite extreme, but are to keep the chamber at a moderate and comfortable temperature. The door ought occasionally to be left ajar, in order the more effectually to change the air and thus to make it more pure and sweet. A new-born babe, then, ought to be kept comfortably warm, but not very warm. It is folly in the extreme to attempt to harden a very young child either by allowing him, in the winter time, to be in a bed-room without a fire, or by dipping him in _cold_ water, or by keeping him with scant clothing on his bed. The temperature of a bed-room, in the winter time, should be, as nearly as possible, at 60° Fahr. Although the room should be comfortably warm, it ought, from time to time, to be properly ventilated. An unventilated room soon becomes foul, and, therefore, unhealthy. How many in this world, both children and adults, are “poisoned with their own breaths!” An infant should not be allowed to look at the glare either of a fire or of a lighted candle, as the glare tends to weaken the sight, and sometimes brings on an inflammation of the eyes. In speaking to and in noticing a baby, you ought always to stand _before_ and not _behind_ him, or it might make him squint. 78. _Ought a babe to lie alone from the first?_ Certainly not. At first—say for the first few months—he requires the warmth of another person’s body, especially in the winter; but care must be taken not to overlay him, as many infants, from carelessness in this particular, have lost their lives. After the first few months, he had better lie alone, on a horse-hair mattress. 79. _Do you approve of rocking an infant to sleep?_ I do not. If the rules of health be observed, he will sleep both soundly and sweetly without rocking; if they be not, the rocking might cause him to fall into a feverish, disturbed slumber, but not into a refreshing, calm sleep. Besides, if you once take to that habit, he will not go to sleep without it. 80. _Then don’t you approve of a rocking-chair, and of rockers to the cradle?_