year between 120 and 150 inquests upon children who had met their deaths in this way. In Birmingham the borough coroner held four inquests on the 18th of October on infants who had been overlain in bed, and he remarked that, in order to avoid such large sacrifice of infant life, cots for children should be provided, as enforced by law on the Continent. The line between the accidental and intentional disposal of infants is allowed to be very indistinct. These facts I quote from the Lancet for October 27th, 1884. Mothers, when they take their children into bed, should put them back into their cots directly they have been fed.
After the first week or two, if an infant wants more warmth than can be got from clothing, a hot water-bottle, hot brick, or sand-bag wrapped in flannel may be put in the bottom of the cradle. Cradles or cots should be raised to a level with the mother's bed, and should never be made to rock. A bad practice is unfortunately very prevalent, of which the mildest form is rocking a baby, or walking up and down with it until it goes to sleep; while the most aggravated form is to jump it up and down when it cries, by way of pacifying it. No doubt the treatment is effective in that it makes the baby go to sleep, or stop crying; but it does so simply by a process of stupefaction. Indeed it might be made so effective that the child would never cry again at all, so thoroughly might the shaking disturb the brain as to stop the vital processes. Fathers especially are fond of tossing their children high up into the air, turning them
