Certainly not: a rocking-chair, or rockers to the cradle, may be useful to a lazy nurse or mother, and may induce a child to sleep, but that restlessly, when he does not need sleep, or when he is wet and uncomfortable, and requires “changing;” but will not cause him to have that sweet and gentle and exquisite slumber so characteristic of a baby who has no artificial appliances to make him sleep. No! rockers are perfectly unnecessary, and the sooner they are banished the nursery the better will it be for the infant community. I do not know a more wearisome and monotonous sound than the everlasting rockings to and fro in some nurseries; they are often accompanied by a dolorous lullaby from the nurse, which adds much to the misery and depressing influence of the performance. 81. _While the infant is asleep, do you advise the head of the crib to be covered with a handkerchief, to shade his eyes from the light, and, if it be summer time, to keep off the flies?_ If the head of the crib be covered, the baby cannot breathe freely; the air within the crib becomes contaminated, and thus the lungs cannot properly perform their functions. If his sleep is to be refreshing, he must breathe pure air. I do not even approve of a head to a crib. A child is frequently allowed to sleep on a bed with the curtains drawn completely close, as though it were dangerous for a breath of air to blow upon him! This practice is most injurious. An infant must have the full benefit of the air of the room; indeed, the bed-room door ought to be frequently left ajar, so that the air of the apartment may be changed—taking care, of course, not to expose him to a draught. If the flies while he is asleep, annoy him, let a _net_ veil be thrown over his face, as he can readily breathe through net, but not through a handkerchief. I have somewhere read that if a cage containing a canary, be suspended at night within a bed where a person is sleeping, and the curtains be drawn closely around, that the bird will, in the morning, in all probability be found dead! 82. _Have you any suggestions to offer as to the way a babe should be dressed when he is put down to sleep?_ Whenever he be put down to sleep, be more than usually particular that his dress be loose in every part; be careful that there be neither strings nor bands to cramp him. Let him, then, during repose, be more than ordinarily free and unrestrained— “If, while in cradled rest your infant sleeps, Your watchful eye unceasing vigils keeps, Lest cramping bonds his pliant limbs constrain, And cause defects that manhood may retain.” 83. _Is it a good sign for a young child to sleep much?_