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78
The Science of Dress.
[CHAP. VI.

about five months the sitting posture may be allowed for a few minutes at a time, if there is no suspicion of rickets, and if the child seems to like it. Care must be taken, too, in carrying a child, that no part of its body be compressed in any way. Moreover, the arm on which it is carried must be changed from time to time, otherwise deformity may result from leaning always on one side, or a tendency may be contracted to turn the eyes in one direction or squint.

However, I consider that from almost the earliest age infants ought to be taken out in perambulators, and, if they are properly dressed, I feel sure that there need be no fear of their thus being more liable to take cold than if they were carried. When I speak of perambulators, I do not mean the old-fashioned and, unfortunately, still very common kind, with a seat and a strap across to keep the baby in; where the head most often hangs over the side of the machine, or the body tends to collapse in a heap on the floor of it. These may truly be called "infernal" machines, which seem to have been invented especially for the purpose of producing deformity. I mean those light, four-wheeled carriages which are now happily coming into vogue, which have a sort of mattress at the bottom for the infant to lie upon, and seats which can be put in, so that older children can sit up comfortably, the wheels of which are cased in india-rubber, so that the vibration when they are in motion shall be as slight as possible. I do not, however, approve of the usual way in which the child is placed in