The Red Cloud chief., 1881-08-18
ABOUT SLEEP.

or by the process of rapid assimilation.
as during the first years OF growth and
during the recovery from an exhausting
disease. The weight of a newborn
child increases more rapidly than that
of a eupeptic adult, enjoying n liberal
diet aftera period of starvation, and,
though an infant j. incapable of form
ing abstract ideas, we need not doubt
that the variety of new and bewildcr-
ing impressions must overtask its little
scnsOrium in a few hours. Musings
should therefore be permitted to sleep
to their full satisfaction; weakly babies,
especially, need sleep more than food,
turb a child slumber VIII lie the regu-
larity Of his breathing indicates the
hcalthiulness of his rcpose; there is lit
tie danger of his housekeeping him
self in a acknowledgements, well-ven-
tilated room. Never mind about meal
times; hunger will awaken him 1t the
right moment, or teach him TO make up
for lost time. Three or four musings
in the t~wentv-foIr hours are enough;
DIR. q. K. Page. who has made the
problem of infant diet his special study.
believes that fifty per cent. of the cnor-
NOUS number of children diving under
two years of age are killed by being
coaxed TO guzzle till they are hopeless
ly diseased with fatty degeneration.
The healthfulness of village children
is partly due to the tranquility of their
slumber in the comfortable hooks of a
quiet homestead, or in the shade of a
leafy tree. while their parents are at
work in a way ratherincompatible with
the habit of fondling the baby all night.
In houses where there is plenty of room,
the nursery and the infants dormitory
ought to be two separate apartments;
the play-room can not be too sunny; for
the bedroom a shady and sequestered
location is, on the whole, preferable.
Next to outdoor exercise, silence and a
subdued light are the best hvpnoticS.
But under no circumstances should in
somnia be overcome by grading or mar
cOtics. Stupefaction is not slumber.
The lethargy induced by rocking and
grading is akin to the drowsy torpor of
a sea-sick passenger, and the opium
doctor might as well benumb his pa
tient by a whack on the head. The
morbid sleeplessncss of children may
be owing TO several causes which can
be generally recognized by the symp-
toms of their aiOdus O~perdnii: impa-
tient turning from side to side, as if in
a vain attempt to obtain a much-needed
repose. means that the room is too
stuffy or too warm; long wasesulness,
combined with squalling-fts and petu-
liant movements, indicates acidity i'm the
stomach (overfeeding. or too much
"soothing-sirup')-le the little kicker
exercise his muscle on the floor; in ma
lignant cases, skip a meal or two, or
give water instead of milk. After
~weathering an attack of Group. children
often lie motionless on their backs with
n peculiar CLASSY stare OF their wide
open ewes. Leave them alone: instinct
teaches them TO assuage the distress of
their lungs by slow and deep respira-
tions; rest and a half-open window will
do them more good than medicine.
Healthful infantS--i G., under ra-
tional management the great plurality
can Don be taught to transact their
public business at ~seasonable hours, Or
ut least to abstain from midnight SER
enades. If mothers would make il a
rule to do all their nursing and fondling
i'm the daytime their little revivalists
would o learn to associate darkness
with the idea of silence and slumber.
Habit will do wonders in such things.
Captain Barclay and several American
pedestrians learned to take their half
hour maps as a traveller snatches a
hasty lunch, and many old soldiers de-
velop a faculty Of going off to sleep, rs
it were. at the word of command the
moment their shoulders touch the
-.,.-1,&. .-- H. 49,
years of my life / passed at al old-style
boarding-school, where teachers and
pupils were limited TO seven hours of
sleep after nine hours of study. besides
written exercises and special recita-
tons, and where sixty or seventy of us
had to sleep in a large hall; and | do
not believe that the last Pickering of
our five-minutes candle was ever wit
messed by a pair of more than half-open
eyes.
But that same faculty of sleeping and
waking at short notice may be utilized
for the purpose of taking little maps
whenever opportunity offers-in the
last half hour of the nOontide recess, or
during the Buncombe interacts of a pro-
tracted session. The inhabitants of all
i~ntertropical counties make the time
ofrepose a movable festival. and dur
ing the dog-days of our torrid summers
it would clearly be the best plan to
initiate their example. Children
must not sleep i'm the daytime" saws a
bylaw of our time-dishonored Koran of
domestic superStitions; and, not salts
fled with keeping our little ones at
school during the drowsy afternoons OF
The summer s~olstice, we increase their
misery by stuiling them at the very
noon of the hottest hours with a mass
of greasy ii. e., heat-producing and
soporific) food. An hour after the end
of a long. sultry day comes the cool
night-wind, Heavens own blessing for
all who hunger and thirst after fresh
air; but no, Might air is Injurious:
besides. Mrs. Grundy objects to PRONE
nades after dark, SO the children are
driven to their ~suffocating, unventilated
bed rooms, not to sleep. hut to swelter,
till toward midnight, when drowsiness
yields only to broad daylight, three or
four hours after sunrise: $50 much the
better" says the fashionable mother,
who has passed the night in an ice
cream rid0tto, land morning air ish't
healthy. either; most dangerous to
leave the house before the dew is off
the grass"
Only the curse of pessimism. our wo-
full distrust of our natural instincts. can
explain such absurdities. The parched
paiate's petition for a cooling liquid is
not palmer than the brains craving for
rest and slumber when q high tenipera-
ture adds its solnniferous tendency to
the drowsy influence of q full meal.
On warm summer days all Nature in
dulges in anoontide nap; Ihave walked
through tropical forests that Were as
silent under the rays of q vertical sun
as . Norwegian pine-grove in the dead
of q polar night; nor would it be easy
to name q single animal that does not
appear sleepy after meals. At noon
leaf-trees throw their densest shade;
ever butterflies seek the penetralia of
the foliage. and lizards cling laziiy to
the dark side of the lower branches;
every school-teacher knows that chill
dren feel the drowss spell OF the after |