92. _Have the goodness to mention the SLIGHT ailments which are not of
sufficient importance to demand the assistance of a medical man_?

I deem it well to make the distinction between _serious_ and _slight_
ailments, I am addressing a mother. With regard to serious ailments, I
do not think myself justified, except in certain _urgent_ cases, in
instructing a parent to deal with them. It might be well to make a
mother acquainted with the _symptoms_, but not with the _treatment_,
in order that she might lose no time in calling in medical aid. This I
hope to have the pleasure of doing in future Conversations.

_Serious diseases, with a few exceptions_, and which I will indicate
in subsequent Conversations, ought never to be treated by a parent,
not even in the _early_ stages, for it is in the early stages that the
most good can generally be done. It is utterly impossible for any one
who is not trained to the medical profession to understand a _serious_
disease in all its bearings, and thereby to treat it satisfactorily.

There are some exceptions to these remarks. It will be seen in future
Conversations that Sir CHARLES LOCOCK considers that a mother ought to
be made acquainted with the _treatment_ of _some_ of the more
_serious_ diseases, where delay in obtaining _immediate_ medical
assistance might be death. I bow to his superior judgment, and have
supplied the deficiency in subsequent Conversations.

The ailments and the diseases of infants, such as may, in the absence
of the doctor, be treated by a parent, are the following:--Chafings,
Convulsions, Costivenesa, Flatulence, Gripings, Hiccup, Looseness of
the Bowels (Diarrhoea), Dysentery, Nettle-rash, Red-gum, Stuffing of
the Nose, Sickness, Thrush. In all these complaints I will tell