should be taken as to the position in which baby lies. The best position for a child to lie in is on its back. If it lies on either side the ribs will be pressed inwards by the bed below and the weight of the arm above; and, moreover, if such a position is habitually assumed, the spine may become twisted, and lateral deformity result. If it is laid on its stomach, as is far too often the case, breathing is rendered difficult, the breast-bone is compressed, and the chest lessened in its dimensions, while the action of the diaphragm is hampered by pressure on the abdomen.
As I have already said, children lose heat very rapidly, and as the circulation is slower during sleep, they require then to be clothed even more warmly than during waking hours; but excessive heat must be as carefully avoided as debilitating cold. As, however, the little ones cannot tell you whether they are too warm or too cold, you must ascertain the state of affairs by passing your hand over their skins.
New-born infants as a rule sleep with the mother, in order to benefit from the warmth of her body. This plan, however, is a dangerous one. In the first place, children sleeping with adults are liable to breathe contaminated air; secondly, an accidental displacement of the bedclothes may easily suffocate them; thirdly, they may run the risk of being, as it is called, "overlain." At an inquest held in St. Pancras, on the 12th of March, 1884, upon the bodies of two children who were found suffocated in bed with their parents, the coroner, Dr. Danford Thomas, stated that he held every
