Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/248

 he expresses the slightest inclination to do so. I have known a little fellow to hold his water, to his great detriment, for twelve hours, because either the mother had in her trouble forgotten to inquire, or the child himself was either too ill or too indolent to make the attempt.

See that the medical man's directions are, to the very letter, carried out. Do not fancy that you know better than he does, otherwise you have no business to employ him. Let him, then, have your implicit confidence and your exact obedience. What you may consider to be a trifling matter, may frequently be of the utmost importance, and may sometimes decide whether the case shall either end in life or death!

Lice.—It is not very poetical, as many of the grim facts of everyday life are not, but, unlike a great deal of poetry, it is unfortunately too true that after a severe and dangerous illness, especially after a bad attack of fever, a child's head frequently becomes infested with vermin—with lice! It therefore behooves a mother herself to thoroughly examine, by means of a fine-tooth comb, her child's head, in order to satisfy her mind that there be no vermin there. A fine-tooth comb ought not to be used at any other time except for the purpose of examination, as the constant use of a fine-tooth comb would scratch the scalp, and would encourage a quantity of scurf to accumulate. As soon as he be well enough, he ought to resume his regular ablutions—that is to say, that he must go again regularly into his tub, and have his head every morning thoroughly washed with soap and water. A mother ought to be particular in seeing that the nurse washes the hair-brush at least once every week; if she does not do so, the dirty brush which had, during the illness, been used, might contain the "nits,"—the eggs of the lice,—and would thus propagate the vermin, as they will, when on the head of the child, soon hatch. If there