You have doubtless read of “the barefoot cures,” established in a few of our foreign cities, with one, I think, in our own land. The patients are required to go out in the dew-wet grass with bare feet, for a certain time every morning, and thus to draw strength and electricity from mother earth. Could I accomplish it I would establish a barefoot cure in every home in the land. Isn’t it really more than three-fourths pride, that forbids our letting our little ones pull off their shoes and stockings, and revel for a time at least each day in the delicious freedom and coolness they could get from direct contact with mother earth? Have any of you a child who has not teased to go barefooted, and why have you not allowed it? Do not, I pray you, cheat them out of this blissful freedom, and simple health-giving measure. Put your pride behind you. Venture the possibility that the foot may become a little larger, and let your boys and girls run barefooted for at least an hour or two each day, in the back yard, if you do not like their appearance in front, or in the park, if you have no back yards, and I venture to say you will have healthier, happier, heartier children than you have ever known. No matter how delicate they are, the more delicate the greater the need. By judicious management at the beginning, accustoming them to the change gradually and in the middle of the day, they will rarely take cold. After they have become habituated to it, you will also find that their usual colds will disappear. Put the tiny babies out into the sand pile as soon as they can sit alone, take off their moccasins and stockings, and let their little feet come in contact with the warm sand and watch their delight. And now I come to a common practice, which although thoughtlessly acquired is none the less pernicious, namely, the habit which many mothers have of dosing their children on all sorts of domestic nostrums, simply on the reputation that they are good for the ailments of childhood, with no idea of their fitness for the individual case, or for any case. The older I grow, and the more I learn about medicines, the more convinced I am that they are not to be tampered with. Could the composition of many of the so-called domestic remedies be known, mothers would stand appalled at their temerity in daring to administer them. We cannot measure the evil results of this indiscriminate dosing. Why are so many of these compounds put upon the market? Simply because people stand ready and willing to use them, and in doing so fancy they are sparing themselves a larger expense by way of a doctor’s fee.