Two pamphlets on important points of domestic economy deserve a
brief notice. Babies : How to Rear Them, by F. A. Fawkes (W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co.), is fall of sensible suggestions. We shall quote one paragraph, derived from the author's own experi- ence :—" In one family, the children, almost from birth, were given just what the parents bad, meat, vegetables, puddings, &c. In another family, two beautiful, healthy little girls were fed from birth on boiled corn-flour and milk, one died at nine months, the other at twelve months of age, both from convulsions. Another infant was fed
from birth on biscuit-powder and milk, with an occasional raw egg. Another had raw eggs beaten up in tea. Several had sponge cakes (a cooked compound of eggs, sugar, and flour), soaked in milk. One mother confessed to having given an infant "nips of gin, whenever she had it" (about six or seven times a day). " The poor little thing died of delirium tremens at nine months ! !" Meat and pudding will seem unreasonable to most people, but there are thousands of intelligent mothers who give their babies spoon-food at a very early' age. To do so before they are at least eight mouths old is as bad as poisoning them. They may not die—poisons do not always kill— but they are to suffer. The other pamphlet (which has reached a third edition), is Our Domestic Poisons; or, the Poisonous Effects of Certain Dyes and Colours Used in. Domestic Fabrics. By Henry Carr. (Ridgway.)
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