Children of Age 1-5.

As to the other queries, relative to children above 1 year of age, and up to the conclusion of the fifth year, I cannot suppose there can be much difference between their general treatment in Scotland and in England.

Scottish children are for the most part fed during all the earlier years of their lives on oatmeal porridge. Oatmeal is the oat deprived of its outer husk and then roughly ground, leaving the oat in broken particles, but not reducing it to the state of flour; this is boiled in pure water, with a little salt, to the consistence of thick batter, and when so far cooled as to be ready for being eaten, the porridge is of the consistence of a pudding, and could be turned out of the dish into which it has been poured. This porridge forms the morning and evening meal of almost all children in Scotland; and it also forms the regular meal of the adults in all the country districts, though tea with bread and butter is fast displacing it in the towns.

The porridge is for the most part supped with butter-milk, when it can be had; as butter-milk is considered much more wholesome than sweet or skim-milk, and less liable to cause colic or convulsions to children. The Scotch have thus the same ideas as to this, as have the nomade Tartars and most inhabitants of warm countries. And they are undoubtedly right; seeing that butter-milk does not coagulate on the stomach, and form a great mass of indigestible curd, which sweet or skim-milk always does.

Vegetable broth, thickened with barley, and a piece of bread of some kind, forms the mid-day meal or dinner of the great mass of children in Scotland.

Illegitimate children are treated in every respect the same as legitimate children. It must be understood, however, that illegitimate children are quite confined to the lower classes, and scarcely ever occur among the middle or upper classes of society.

Vaccination was greatly neglected in Scotland till our late Act made it imperative. Nearly all are now vaccinated within three months of birth.

As a general rule, no drugs of any kind are given to children, excepting under medical direction when they are ill, and, excepting with the criminal class, they never taste spirituous liquors of any kind.

There is a just prejudice also against commencing the education of any child till it is 6 years old, excepting always what it may pick up from its mother or older children. It is found in practice, too, that early training only damages the physical and mental capacities of a child, so that, however great a prodigy it may be in infantile life, it falls behind its compeers as life advances. My own firm conviction is, that nothing mental should be attempted with a child till 7 years old, excepting what is given as mere general training at home and in the way of pure amusement.

The dress of all infants in Scotland, under 5 years of age, is essentially the same as in England, and is the same with all classes, viz., short petticoats.

Some of the better classes make these short petticoats in the form of the highland kilt, but this does not alter its nature.

As to the kilt itself, as a dress for boys, if we allow the boys who wear it to bear witness regarding it, there is no costume which approaches it for comfort, or which gives more freedom to the motions. All boys who have worn it say that it is much warmer than trowsers, even in the severest weather; and so long as my own boys wore kilts nothing would induce them to put on trowsers, as they asserted the kilt was so much warmer a clothing for winter, and so much cooler a covering for summer, while it did not hamper their motion as trowsers did. In fact, all boys whom I have known to wear the kilt side with the late General Stewart, of the 42nd Highlanders, who defended the highland costume as the very best for soldiers in all climates. It is neither more nor less than the old Roman dress; and the wretched modern imitations, to suit our squeamish notions of propriety, the French Zouave costume and the English knickerbockers, can never compare with it in anything.

P.S. During infancy the children in Scotland are not bandaged in any way so as to prevent the free motion of the limbs; and about the weaning period (nine months), the infant is encouraged to use its limbs, by being often laid down on the floor, and allowed to sprawl about till able perfectly to walk.

With the great majority of children, from the moment the child is able to walk it spends most of the day in the open air, about the doors of the street or close if in the town, about the doors of the cottage if in the country, those a little older taking the charge of the younger ones, the mother now and then seeing that they are not about some mischief.

Excepting among the better classes of a few of the large towns, in former days, few children had shoes or stockings till they went to school. Of late years, we have been closely imitating the English practice in our towns, and clothing the feet of our infants; but even yet, in all our rural districts, which embrace more than a half of the population, and at least half the population of our towns, that is to say, in from 75 to 80 per cent. of all the infants, no shoes or stockings are put on till the child goes to school or to service, and often not even then, excepting during winter. This practice is not found to injure the child in any way, but rather to conduce to health and vigour; and, strange as it may appear, those children who wear no shoes or stockings suffer less from chilblains than those who wear both stockings and shoes. The sole of the foot, also, becomes so hardened and insensible, as, compared with a covered foot, that the inequalities of the road do not hurt the foot, and the children walk with a lightness, firmness of step, and freedom of carriage greatly superior to those wearing shoes.

NORWAY.

By PROFESSOR ASCHOUG, of Christiania.

The nourishment of Norwegian children varies greatly among different classes and in different localities. In the families of the higher classes it differs little from that used everywhere in the north

of Europe. But their number is insignificant in comparison with the great mass of our population, the peasant proprietors and the labourers. It is upon these classes the average rate of mortality depends. The diet of the children belonging to these classes is everywhere most simple and frugal. In the first year of their life they are suckled by their mother; and in the poorest families it is not uncommon, although by no means a general custom, that the mothers continue to suckle the child until two or three years' old. The reason they assign is, that it diminishes the number of children; often it is only sheer want, that forces them to choose this manner of nourishing their children, as the cheapest; afterwards the children must partake of the common fare, potatoes, cakes and porridge made from oatmeal or bigg, and coffee, generally without sugar. In the interior, pork and dried and salted meat is used according to the means of the household, but everywhere, except among the richer peasants, in small quantities. On the coast, fish, fresh or salted, enters into the daily consumption as one of the principal means of subsistence. It is however often badly prepared, and tainted. The state of horticulture is very low, and the vegetables of the garden are little used. Especially it is to be remarked that the Norwegians consume less legumina than any other people of the north and middle of Europe. The redeeming feature of their diet is, that they have considerable quantities of milk for their consumption. To a population of 1,700,000 we have 800,000 horned cattle; these cattle are certainly poorly fed, in winter time often half-starved; they produce little meat, and, in comparison with the cattle of other countries, even little milk. In the average you can scarcely reckon more than 200 gallons a-year from every cow. But of the 265,000 households in the rural districts, you may safely say that 180,000 each possess at least one cow, and among the poorer people the milk is almost wholly consumed in the household, chiefly in its natural state or as butter. Of the food at hand, the children partake indifferently, without regard to their age. I never heard that people of the lower orders consider any kind of food unhealthy for their children; they only think of satisfying their hunger. Especially I do not believe that the children get more than their share of the milk. They are generally scantily fed, and by no means ruddy complexioned or robust looking. My impression is, that the low rate of mortality has very little to do with their diet, and this opinion coincides with what I have heard from the medical chief himself, and other gentlemen, with whom I have discussed your question. But the conditions under which the great mass of our population live, are in several respects very different from those of other people.

1. The characteristic feature of our climate is its low temperature; this seems to be favourable to the vitality of every species of animals able to live here at all. Our horned cattle are a most hardy race, free from a great many maladies that decimate the stocks of other countries. Our horses are full of vigour at an age in which the common horses of the middle of Europe are decrepid. The length of human life decreases, however, sensibly north of the polar circle, and is in Finmarken considerably below the average. Whether the

climate is wet or dry, does not seem to exercise great influence on the rate of mortality. It is nearly as low on the sandy plains of Jaderen, south of Havanger, that are drenched by the rains of the Atlantic, as in Gudbranddalen and Okerdalen, where the climate is very dry.

2. Of our whole population in 1855, 1,490,000, only 198,000 lived in cities and towns. The rural population does not live in villages as in the middle of Europe and Denmark and Sweden, but in detached farms and cottages.

3. Our houses are almost all made of wood. They are often built upon dry rocks, and even when built upon earth they are generally provided with foundations of stone. They have always floors of planks. They are accordingly seldom damp, at least not in comparison with the hovels inhabited by the lower orders in other countries.

4. Norway is properly speaking a single enormous rock of the hardest formation, generally gneiss and granite. The fissures filled with earth are few and small. The land under tillage is not more than of the whole area. The proportion of its surface capable of absorbing wet and generating miasmas is certainly less than in any other European country. Low marshy ground of large extent is almost unknown.

SWEDEN.

By DR. BERG, Director of Statistical Department.

The Swedish women are generally very fond of their babies. The rule is, that the mother in all classes of society suckles her infants. Very often the peasant women prolong the suckling two to three years. Only in the higher classes and in the towns are wetnurses employed in the case of inability of the mother. A very remarkable exception must be noticed. Since the first results of our statistics of population have been known, in the middle of the last century, the great mortality among the infants 0-1 attracted attention. The rate of mortality was higher in the province of Finland named Osterbotten than elsewhere, and it was proved that this high rate of mortality amongst infants of the peasant women was owing to the custom which prevails of not suckling the babies, but suspending a horn filled with sour milk over the cradle for their nourishment, as the mothers are obliged to work in the fields or woods at a great distance from home. To counteract this habit and its deplorable effects, a tract was published in 1755, "On the Nursing of Infants," and distributed amongst the inhabitants. Models of the construction named "wattje," used by the Lappons for transporting their babies on the back of the mother, were also distributed to the parishes, with the view of preventing the suffocation of infants placed in the same bed as their parents. At the same time a royal edict prescribed a fine of 10 dollars for mothers who by neglecting to suckle their babies for at least half a-year had caused the death of the children. I do not know what was the effect of these measures, but traces of the bad habit are still to be found in the same region of Finland, and particularly in the province of Weiterbotten, opposite to Osterbotten, on the other side of the Baltic. In Sweden, I am sure it is the exception and not the rule. Cow milk, together

with the mother's, is of frequent use; and when the suckling is prolonged to the third year, as is very often the case in the country, the babies run after the mother, ask her to kneel down, and suckle standing before her, they naturally eating also all other kinds of food.

Formerly, there was also a bad habit of giving brandy to the babies to silence them, through a notion that the effect was not injurious. The use of cradles which can be moved is general; but in our foundling hospital bedsteads of iron are introduced, without

any movement.

Three public schools of midwifery are in activity, and the majority of parishes have their own midwives, spreading the rules established in the schools. The new-born child having been bathed or washed with lukewarm water and clothed, is placed first at the mother's side, and very soon allowed to suckle her. Later the cradle or a bed at the side of the mother's receives the child. The habit of giving them some laxative is discountenanced, but is still in use. The clothing for the most part is linen or cotton; temperature of the room, generally too high; cover of the bed, warm. When the whole family is often living in the same room, the air cannot be fresh; the nursery of the upper classes is also very seldom the largest and best room of the flat. Double windows, much in use here through six or seven months of the year, are not favourable to health, but we can scarcely be without them; for the ice would then cover the inside of the single window in rooms where the air is so humid as it is in the nursery. For the most part the infauts pass seven or eight months of winter indoors, which cannot be favourable, when there is not sufficient ventilation.

About one-tenth of living born infants being illegitimate, this high proportion exercises a considerable influence on the mortality. Great numbers of the illegitimate cared for by the directory for the poor and paid for at fostermothers, or in Stockholm received for some time as inmates in the foundling hospital, are soon lost. From amongst the mothers of this class are generally chosen the wetnurses, whose general character is much better than it would be supposed. For the most part they are female servants, and after their fall returning as wetnurses in a good family, they are very often rivals with the mother in their cares. After suckling they often stand as drynurses, fondly attached to the children. The mean time for suckling may be about ten months. The nutriment most employed after weaning is a pap prepared by boiling milk with wheat meal, after which small-beer and syrup are added. About the diseases of infauts many prejudices trouble the medical men. women regard thrush as inevitable, so calling the white flocks of excessive caseine in the excrements, treating them with infusion of rhubarb without sending for the doctor. Crusta lactea is regarded as a benefit-a noli tangere. Diarrhoea at the period of teething is very often considered as prophylactic against convulsions, and is in consequence too often neglected. Every disease with want of appetite, amaigrissement, morositas, is referred to some disease called altá, or skarfin rifet, and presumed to be a secret from medical men, but well known to some old women, who are reputed to cure it by

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