in this way.  A child so indulged will eat heartily enough, but he remains thin notwithstanding.  After a time he will have frequent fever, will appear heated and flushed towards evening, when he will drink greedily, and more than is usual in children of the same age; there will be deranged condition of the bowels, and headach,—­the child will soon become peevish, irritable, and impatient; it will entirely lose the good humour so natural to childhood, and that there is something wrong will be evident enough, the parent, however, little suspecting the real cause and occasion of all the evil.  In such a child, too, it will be found that the ordinary diseases of infancy, scarlet fever, measles, small pox, etc., will be attended with an unusual degree of constitutional disturbance; that it will not bear such active treatment as other children, or so quickly rally from the illness.

“Strength is to be obtained not from the kind of food which contains most nourishment in itself, but from that which is best adapted to the condition of the digestive organs at the time when it is taken.”

Sugar.—­This is a necessary condiment for the food of children, and it is nutritious, and does not injure the teeth, as is generally imagined.  “During the sugar season,” observes Dr. Dunglison, “the negroes of the West India islands drink copiously of the juice of the cane, yet their teeth are not injured; on the contrary, they have been praised by writers for their beauty and soundness; and the rounded form of the body, whilst they can indulge in the juice, sufficiently testifies to the nutrient qualities of the saccharine beverage."[FN#13] Sweetmeats, on the other hand, are most indigestible, and seriously injurious.

[FN#13] Elements of Hygiem.  Philadephia, 1835.

Salt.—­This is necessary for the health of a child; it acts as a stimulant to the digestive organs, and if not allowed in sufficient quantity with the food, worms will result.[FN#14] It may, therefore, be added in small quantity, and with advantage, even to the farinaceous food of infants.  Salted meats, however, should never be permitted to the child; for by the process of salting the fibre of the meat is so changed, that it is less nutritive, as well as less digestible.

[FN#14] Lord Sommerville, in his Address to the Board of Agriculture, gave an interesting account of the effects of a punishment which formerly existed in Holland.  “The ancient laws of the country ordained men to be kept on bread alone, un-mixed with salt, as the severest punishment that could be inflicted upon them in their moist climate.  The effect was horrible:  these wretched criminals are said to have been devoured by worms engendered in their own stomachs.”

“The wholesomeness and digestibility of our bread are undoubtedly much promoted by the addition of the salt which it so universally receives.  A pound of salt is generally added to each bushel of flour.  Hence it may be presumed, that every adult consumes two ounces of salt per week, or six pounds and a half per annum, in bread alone.”