Needless interference with the patient must not be indulged in. Sleep and quiet are essential features of nature's reparative process. It is seldom necessary to disturb a sick child for the giving of food or medicine oftener than every second or third hour. Medicine may always be given with food. Meddlesome interference, talkative attendants, or excessive noise may exhaust a child and may prolong and render dangerous or fatal a condition that would otherwise go on to recovery.
One satisfactory movement of the bowel daily is essential to the comfort and progress of a sick person. If this does not take place naturally, it should be obtained by an enema.
At the beginning of any illness in childhood it is a safe procedure to give a dose of a suitable cathartic as soon as it is discovered that the child is sick.
A CHILD IS THE MOST HELPLESS LIVING THING.--Nature endows the young of every species--except those of the human family--with certain instincts, which, when developed, govern and control their lives absolutely. The technical definition of an instinct is an exceedingly complicated word picture. It is only essential to an intelligent understanding of our subject that the reader should have a definite idea of the difference between an act that is the result of a process of reasoning and an act that is the result of an instinct. If a man finds his way out of his burning home he will stay out as long as there is any danger. The crudest kind of reasoning will teach this lesson. A horse, on the other hand--and incidentally it may be noted that a horse is regarded as an intelligent animal--if led out of a burning stable and let loose, will immediately reënter and be burned to death. The horse is the victim of instinct; he obeys the unconquerable instinct to return to his stall--he cannot reason as the man can that a home that is burning is not a proper place to seek safety in. When an ostrich fears danger he buries his head in the sand, under the impression that if his head is out of sight he is safe from danger. This is his instinctive plan of procedure in the presence of danger, and it is the plan of every ostrich, everywhere, always. A little reasoning would show them how foolish the idea is--but they cannot reason. That is the province of man alone. If the first member of a flock of sheep jumps over a fence to get into the next field, every member of the flock will follow, each one jumping the fence, though there may be an open gate between the two fields a few yards away. Instinct dictates the plan to the sheep as they have received instructions from their ancestors always to "follow the lead." This is their hereditary legacy and they cannot disobey it.