Page:Science ofDress084.png

84 continuously for so long; but they can be taken in for a few minutes, fed, and then brought out in the perambulator again.

Open-air exercise is one of the most important conditions for the preservation and obtaining of health, and though exercise for the young infant must be passive, for the child who can walk and run, it may, and should be very active indeed; and children, instead of being commanded to walk steadily for fear of spoiling their clothes, should be encouraged to play in the open air as much as possible. They should be given, toy sets of harness, so that they may play horses. They should skip and roll hoops, and, above all, play ball. Ball is the oldest of all games, and the one most in favour with the ancient Greeks, the nation of all others the most remarkable for its muscular symmetry. The ordinary india-rubber ball, about three or three and a half inches in diameter, is so light that, while it can be thrown about in every way, and give exercise to every muscle in the body, at the same time strengthening the lungs by the increased rapidity of respiration, if it strikes any part of the body it can do no harm, and does not even produce as much as a bruise. Of gymnastics I propose to write at some future time; but no amount of gymnastics can have that healthful, physical, and mental influence which belongs to a good game thoroughly enjoyed.

The old prejudice against young children being allowed to sleep in the open air probably arose from the fact that in the old-fashioned perambu