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CHAP. iv.] never coddled," they forget that most important of all principles, that the fittest survive. A, B, or C may be a very fine fellow indeed, but he is only so because he is the happy possessor of a magnificent constitution, which he has inherited from his ancestors, and which enables him to do with impunity all sorts of things which would be fatal to a weaker individual. The "hardening" theorists only take account of their successes; their failures are quietly put away underground and forgotten, or perhaps remembered with a sigh and the remark that "God loved them, so He took them for His own."

The necessity for a thorough protection from cold is a pressing one, especially for children. The warmth of clothing, whether for children or adults, should be regulated by the thermometer, not by the season of the year; and in kind and quantity clothes should be "sufficient in the individual case to protect the body effectually from an abiding sensation of cold, however slight" as Andrew Combe wrote over forty years ago. In the case of infants, however, it is not always easy to know if they are sufficiently warm, since they cannot tell us of their sensations; but the best plan to adopt is to pass the warm hand over the surface of their bodies, and if it feels chilly, to supply increased warmth of clothing.

As the subject of clothing is most important in the case of young infants, it will be well to devote a whole chapter to its consideration.