SEC. 5. Caps.

The practice of putting caps on infants is happily going by; and perhaps it may be thought unnecessary for me to dwell a single moment on the subject.  But as the practice still prevails in some parts of the country, it may be well to bestow upon it a few passing remarks.

Many mothers have not considered that the circulation of the blood in young infants is peculiarly active; that a large amount of blood is at that period carried to the head; that in consequence of this, the head is proportionably hotter than in adults; and that from this source arises the tendency of very young children to brain-fever, dropsy in the head, and other diseases of this part of the system.  But these are most undoubted facts.

Hence one reason why the heads of infants should be kept as cool as possible; and though a thin cap confines less heat than a thick head of hair does when they are older, yet they are less able to bear it.  The truth is, that nature furnishes a covering for the head, just about as fast as a covering is required, and the child’s safety will permit.

At the present day, few persons will probably be found, who will defend the utility of caps, any longer than till the hair is grown.  The general apology for their use after this period, and indeed in most instances before, is, that they look pretty.  “What would people say to see my darling without a cap?”

But when the head is kept, from the first, totally uncovered, the hair grows more rapidly, dandruff and other scurfy diseases rarely attack the scalp; catarrh, snuffles, and other similar complaints, and above all, dropsy in the head, seldom show themselves; and the period of cutting teeth, that most dangerous period in the life of an infant, is passed over with much more safety.

“Nothing but custom,” says a foreign writer, “can reconcile us to the cap, with all its lace and trumpery ornaments, on the beautiful head of a child; and I would ask any one to say candidly, whether he thinks the children in the pictures of Titian and Raffaelle would be improved by having their heads covered with caps, instead of the silken curls—­the adornment of nature—­which cluster round their smiling faces.  If there were no other reason for disusing caps for infants, but the improvement which it produces in the appearance of the child, I would maintain that this is a sufficient inducement.”  And I concur with him fully.

As to the notion—­now I hope nearly exploded—­that it is necessary to cover up the “open of the head,” as it is called, nothing can be more idle.  This part of the head requires no more covering than any other part; and if it did, all the dress in the world could not affect it in the least, except to retard the growth of the bones, which, in due time, ought to close up the space; and this effect, anything which keeps the head too hot might help to produce.  Of the folly of wetting the head with spirits, or any other medicated lotions, and of making daily efforts to bring it into shape, it is unnecessary to speak in the present chapter.