The proper hour for bathing is the early part of the day, or about the middle of the forenoon.  This season is selected, because the process, manage it as carefully as we may, is at first a little exhausting.  As the child grows older, however, and not only becomes stronger, but appears to be actually refreshed and invigorated by the bath, it will be advisable to defer it to a later and later hour.  By the time the babe is three months old, particularly in the warm season, the hour of bathing may be at sunset.

The degree of heat must be determined, in part, by observing its effect on the child; and in part by a thermometer.  For this, and for other purposes, a thermometer, as I have already more than hinted, is indispensable in every nursery.  Our own sensations are often at best a very unsafe guide.  There is one rule which should always be observed—­never to have the temperature of the bath below that of the air of the room.  If the thermometer show the latter to be 70, the bath should be something like 80; perhaps with feeble children, rather more.

Great care ought always to be taken to proportion the air of the room and the water of the bath to each other.  If, for example, the temperature of the room have been, for some time, unusually warm, that of the water must not be so low as if it had been otherwise.  On the contrary, if the room have been, for a considerable time, rather cool, the bath may be made several degrees cooler than in other circumstances.  But in no case and in no circumstances must a warm bath—­intended as such, simply—­be so warm or so cold, as to make the child uncomfortable; whether the temperature be 70, 80, or 90.

It is hardly necessary to add, that in bathing a young child, the vessel used for the purpose should be large enough to give free scope to all the motions of its extremities.  Most children are delighted to play and scramble about in the water.  I know, indeed, that the contrary sometimes happens; but when it does, it is usually—­I do not say always—­because the countenances of those who are around express fear or apprehension; for it is surprising how early these little beings learn to decipher our feelings by our very countenances.

Some of our readers may be surprised at the intimation that there are mothers and nurses who have fears or apprehensions in regard to the effects of the warm bath; but others—­and it is for such that I write this paragraph—­will fully understand me.  I have been often surprised at the fact, but it is undoubted, that there is a strong prejudice against warm bathing, in many parts of the country.  In endeavoring to trace the cause, I have usually found that it arose from having seen or heard of some child who died soon after its application.  I have had many a parent remonstrate with me on the danger of the warm bath; and this, too, in circumstances when it appeared to me, that the child’s existence depended, under God, on that very measure.  Perhaps it is useless in such cases, however, to reason with parents on the subject.  The medical practitioner must do his duty boldly and fearlessly, and risk the consequences.