water, and as soon as warm water can be procured, to put him into a
warm bath [Footnote: For the precautions to be used in putting a child
into a warm bath, see the answer to question on "Warm Baths."] of 98
degrees Fahrenheit. If a thermometer be not at hand, [Footnote: No
family, where there are young children, should be without Fahrenheit's
thermometer.] you must plunge your own elbow into the water: a
comfortable heat for your elbow will be the proper heat for the
infant. He must remain in the bath for a quarter of an hour, or until
the fit be at an end. The body must, after coming out of the bath, be
wiped with warm and dry and coarse towels; he ought then to be placed
in a warm blanket. The gums must be lanced, and cold water should be
applied to the head. An enema, composed of table salt, of olive oil,
and warm oatmeal gruel--in the proportion of one table-spoonful of
salt, of one of oil, and a tea-cupful of gruel--ought then to be
administered, and should, until the bowels have been well opened, be
repeated every quarter of an hour; as soon as he comes to himself a
dose of aperient medicine ought to be given.

It may be well, for the comfort of a mother, to state that a child in
convulsions is perfectly insensible to all pain whatever; indeed, a
return to consciousness speedily puts convulsions to the rout.

64. _A nurse is in the habit of giving a child, who is teething,
either coral, or ivory, to bite: do you approve of the plan_?

I think it a bad practice to give him any hard, unyielding substance,
as it tends to harden the gums, and, by so doing, causes the teeth to
come through with greater difficulty. I have found softer substances,
such as either a piece of wax taper, or an India-rubber ring, or a
piece of the best bridle leather, or a crust of bread, of great