Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/275

 justify corporal chastisement, it would surely be such an act of disobedience. There are only two acts of disobedience that I would flog a child for—namely, the playing with fire and the telling of a lie! If after various warnings and wholesome corrections he still persists, it would be well to let him slightly taste the pain of his doing so, either by holding his hand for a moment very near the fire, or by allowing him to slightly touch either the hot bar of the grate or the flame of the candle. Take my word for it, the above plan will effectually cure him—he will never do it again! It would be well for the children of the poor to have pinafores made either of woolen or of stuff materials. The dreadful deaths from burning, which so often occur in winter, too frequently arise from cotton pinafores first taking fire. "It has been computed that upwards of 1000 children are annually burned to death by accident in England." If all dresses, after being washed, and just before being dried, were, for a short time, soaked in a solution of tungstate of soda, such clothes, when dried, would be perfectly fire-proof. Tungstate of soda may be used either with or without starch; but full directions for the using of it will, at the time of purchase, be given by the chemist. 285. Is a burn more dangerous than a scald?

A burn is generally more serious than a scald. Burns and scalds are more dangerous on the body, especially on the chest, than either on the face or on the extremities. The younger the child, of course, the greater is the danger.

Scalds, both of the mouth and of the throat, from a child drinking boiling water from the spout of a tea-*kettle, are most dangerous. A poor person's child is, from the unavoidable absence of the mother, sometimes shut up in the kitchen by himself, and being very thirsty,