--The respiration of a pure air is at all times, and under
all circumstances, indispensable to the health of the infant. The
nursery therefore should be large, well ventilated, in an elevated part
of the house, and so situated as to admit a free supply both of air
and light. For the same reasons, the room in which the infant sleeps
should be large, and the air frequently renewed; for nothing is so
prejudicial to its health as sleeping in an impure and heated
atmosphere. The practice, therefore, of drawing thick curtains closely
round the bed is highly pernicious; they only answer a useful purpose
when they defend the infant from any draught of cold air.
The proper time for taking the infant into the open air must, of
course, be determined by the season of the year, and the state of the
weather. "A delicate infant born late in the autumn will not generally
derive advantage from being carried into the open air, in this climate,
till the succeeding spring; and if the rooms in which he is kept are
large, often changed, and well ventilated, he will not suffer from the
confinement, while he will, most probably, escape catarrhal affections,
which are so often the consequence of the injudicious exposure of
infants to a cold and humid atmosphere."[FN#17] If, however, the child
is strong and healthy, no opportunity should be lost of taking it into
the open air at stated periods, experience daily proving that it has
the most invigorating and vivifying influence upon the system.
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