by dilating the pores, and inducing perspiration, establishes an action between the interior and exterior fluids; the skin fills the perspiring functions, and gives to the whole economy the necessary vitality. All organized bodies require heat. Seed would not grow, unless surrounded by genial warmth, forming a sort of incubation; and a deviation of temperature gives life to thousands of creatures, which are destroyed by cold.

Warmth is essentially necessary to infants; without it, growth is impossible. In countries where the rays of the sun are seldom seen, the inhabitants are always short. We are here

naturally led to speak of cold.

Cold is the decrease of caloric in bodies; it is the dimunition of a certain temperature; the negation of heat; and the more the caloric diminishes, the more intense is the cold.

In the north of the two continents, says Lacepede, nature repressed in its efforts, and circumscribed in its movements, seems ready to expire under the deadly power of rigorous cold. The Laponese, the Samoiedes, the Ostiacs, are seldom more than four feet high; which proves the deterioration of the human race, in its usual dimensions.

In cold countries, the organs are slowly developed, and females do not attain puberty before the age of eighteen or twenty. It is

principally as regards growth, that we wish to consider the effects of cold.

The younger a child is, the lower is its temperature, and the more it feels the cold. Instinct alone leads mothers to keep their infants warm. Philosophers have vainly endeavoured to persuade parents that cold strengthens children's constitutions. Happily, few mothers have the barbarous courage to follow these theoretical ideas, rather specious than judicious.

Children are much more liable to cold than adults, which however, is not the general opinion. Infants, in England, are scarcely covered, their little arms and legs are left naked, and are often blue with cold, because the circulation does not take place freely at the extremities. A practice so fraught with dangerous consequences should be discontinued, and a few examples of the effects of cold may, perhaps, be more useful than mere common-place observation.

A kitten, born on the 12th of February, taken from its mother, and exposed to the air, when the temperature was at 14 degrees, which lowered to 18° in nine hours, was stiff, and could scarcely

move.

The following month, two kittens, a day old, when near their mother, were in a temperature of 37°; at a distance from her, in two hours their temperature lowered to 25°; in three hours to 18°,

and in four hours they were stiff, and scarcely alive.

The same experiments were made on dogs and birds; as their temperature decreased, they became motionless, and had they not been placed near a fire, or put in a warm bath, they must inevitably have perished.

Animals cannot always remain near their young, and keep their temperature in the same degree. Birds build their nests in sheltered spots, and carefully deposit all the shreds of wool and down they find, in order to create warmth for their young; and while the mother goes in search of food, the little creatures draw close together, and keep each other warm; yet maternal instinct and solicitude do not enable the parent to judge of the degree of cold produced by her absence; and it has been wisely ordained, that birds should be hatched in the spring, when the temperature is high, and the rays of the sun fertilize the earth. Summer is favourable to their growth, and before the approach of winter, they have acquired sufficient strength to bear the cold.

It is nevertheless to be observed, that a moderate degree of cold, gives activity to the digestive functions; the palpitations of the heart are stronger, respiration more easy, cutaneous perspiration is diminished, sometimes entirely suspended; the secretion of the kidneys increased, so that, if this state of the temperature be considered as tonic for some individuals, it is

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prejudicial to those who have weak chests, palpitation of the heart; or are affected with any organic malady.

The fatal effects of cold, are painfully demonstrated in the exposure of foundlings, enfans trouvés; these unfortunate little beings are sometimes left with scarcely any covering; become chilled; the skin hardens; the perspiration is arrested; the blood rushes to the heart, and the large vessels; and it too frequently happens, that public charity comes too late to their assistance. Torn, by vice or poverty, from the maternal breast, they sink and perish with cold and hunger.

How numerous are the facts that could unfortunately, be brought forward, to shew the sufferings infants undergo from exposure to cold. In England it is the custom to take very young children, to be baptized, into churches generally cold, and frequently damp; their heads are uncovered, and cold water is sprinkled on them; a practice most injurious to delicate infants, unprepared to bear the sudden transition.

The French law requires that children should be brought to the Mairie within three days after their birth. Dr. Edwards consulted the returns made to the Minister for the Home Department, and found that the number of infantine deaths was by far greater in winter than in summer; and he also ascertained, that in villages where the inhabitants lived at a distance from the Mairie, the

mortality was more considerable than when the distance was short. Legislators certainly erred, in requiring infants to be exposed to the action of cold air before they had sufficient strength to resist its influence; and parents who, from system, have their children indiscriminately bathed in cold water every day in the year, carry a good principle beyond the limits of reason; and their innocent victims fall a sacrifice to misplaced kind intentions.