Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/84

 sleep upon her lap is a bad one, and ought never to be countenanced. He sleeps cooler, more comfortably, and soundly in his crib.

The younger an infant is the more he generally sleeps, so that during the early months he is seldom awake, and then only to take the breast. It may be interesting to a mother to know the average weight of new-born infants. There is a paper on the subject in the Medical Circular and which has been abridged in Braithwaite's Retrospect of Medicine. The following are extracts: "Dr. E. von Siebold presents a table of the weights of 3000 infants (1586 male and 1414 female), weighed immediately after birth. From this table (for which we have not space) it results that by far the greater number of the children (2215) weighed between 6 and 8 lbs. From 5-3/4 to 6 lbs. the number rose from 99 to 268; and from 8 to 8-1/4 lbs. they fell from 226 to 67, and never rose again at any weight to 100. From 8-3/4 to 9-1/2 lbs. they sank from 61 to 8, rising, however, at 9-1/2 lbs to 21. Only six weighed 10 lbs., one 10-3/4 lbs., and two 11 lbs. The author has never but once met with a child weighing 11-3/4 lbs. The most frequent weight in the 3000 was 7 lbs., numbering 426. It is a remarkable fact, that until the weight of 7 lbs. the female infants exceeded the males in number, the latter thenceforward predominating.  From these statements, and those of various other authors here quoted, the conclusion may be drawn that the normal weight of a mature new-born infant is not less than 6 nor more than 8 lbs., the average weight being 6-1/2 or 7 lbs., the smaller number referring to female and the higher to male infants." 84. How is it that much sleep causes a young child to thrive so well?

If there be pain in any part of the body, or if any of the functions be not properly performed, he sleeps but little. On the contrary, if there be exemption from pain,