proportioned to the infant's exertions; so that the more active and energetic the child, the greater is the injury done. All this while the feet are resting on a board placed underneath them, the lover extremities being thus impeded in their movements; the head falls more and more forward, the muscles of the back are weakened and elongated, while those of the chest derive considerable strength from their constant exercise; the clavicles are unable to support the shoulders in their proper position, and therefore bend, or are forced from their natural situation; the cavity of the chest is diminished, and the foundation of numerous disorders is laid.
We cannot help in this place adverting to the habit so frequently adopted by nursery-maids of dragging the child by the arm during the process of teaching it to walk. The unhappy infant is consigned to the care of an inexperienced nursemaid, who, in her anxiety to pass a crossing, seizes the baby by the hand, and literally drags it across, regardless of the child's feet not touching the ground. The poor baby stumbles in its passage over the rough ground, and the nurse being engaged in preserving herself from the probability of being run over by the cabs or omnibuses which are constantly passing, rushes across, and at the end of
