Sometimes children are constitutionally costive, that is, the bowels are relieved every third or fourth day, not oftener, and yet perfect health is enjoyed.  This occasionally will happen in large families, all the children, though perfectly healthy and robust, being similarly affected.  When such is found by a mother to be really the habit of her child, it would be very unwise, because injurious to its health, to attempt by purgatives to obtain more frequent relief.  At the same time it will be prudent and necessary for her to watch that the regular time is not exceeded.  This condition seldom occurs to the very young infant.

2.  In childhood.

Children of sound health, who are judiciously fed, and have sufficient exercise, very seldom need aperient medicine.  Errors in diet, a want of proper attention to the state of the skin, insufficiency of air and exercise, in fine, a neglect of those general principles which have been laid down for the management of health, and upon the observance of which the due and healthy performance of every function of the body depends, are the sources of bowel derangements, and particularly, at this age, of costiveness.

I feel assured, however, that some children are more troubled with costiveness than others, from the simple but important circumstance of their not being early taught the habit of relieving the bowels daily, and at a certain hour.  There is a natural tendency to this periodical relief of the system, and it exists at the earliest age.  And if the mother only cause this habit to be fairly established in infancy, she will do much towards promoting regularity of her child’s bowels throughout life.  The recollection of this fact, and the mother’s acting upon it, is of the greatest importance to the future health and comfort of her children.

If the bowels are accidentally confined at this age, castor oil is certainly the best aperient that can be given:  it acts mildly but efficiently, clearing out the bowels without irritating them.  The dose must be regulated by the age, as also by the effect that aperients generally have upon the individual.  Great care must in future be taken to avoid the cause or accidental circumstance which produced the irregularity.

When the bowels are habitually costive, much care and judgment is necessary for their relief and future management.  Fortunately this condition is very rare in youth.  The activity and exposure to the air, usual at this period of life, render purgatives unnecessary, unless, indeed (as just mentioned), some error in diet, or some unusual circumstance, render them accidentally confined.  Should, however, the foregoing state exist, medicine alone will avail little; there are certain general measures which must also be acted up to, and most strictly, if the end is to be accomplished.  They consist, principally, in an observance of great regularity with respect to the time of taking food, its quality, quantity, and due