point is to keep it well out of the eyes of both girls and boys, and to avoid its hanging about the neck and ears, which is very apt to be the first exciting cause of ungainly and choreic tricks. Washing from head to foot, properly conducted, is a process which ought to be effectively performed at least once I think twice-every day, because the health of the body is mainly dependent on the action of the skin. It is well to wash with warm water and plenty of soap, using cold water as a finishing bath, applied gently, not in a way to frighten the child, but so that it may stimulate the surface. The proper source of bodily heat is a free circulation of blood duly oxygenated and richly laden with the nutrient elements furnished by good plain food. The diet should be ample in quantity and varied in form; meals being taken at regular hours. The practice of feeding children with dainties at odd times is destructive of a healthy appetite.

The principles that should underlie the management of young girls are the same which I have tried to explain in relation to boys, with the important qualification that more care needs to be taken of girls in respect to the body, while in relation to the mind, the chief aim should be to

preserve innocence and prolong childhood. With this view, there ought to be in the conduct of those who have the care of girls, a studious avoidance of act or manner which may awaken suggestive thoughts. All children should, when practicable, sleep in separate cots, with light but warm clothing, and care must be taken that they go to sleep happily and peacefully, without worry, grief, or fear; and that on awaking they rise immediately and are quickly dressed.

With these general remarks we may leave a part of the subject which, though cognate, is somewhat beyond the limits I have laid down, and pass on to the consideration of girl-womanhood as it presents itself to the care of parents and guardians.

GIRL-WOMANHOOD.

IN LATER YEARS.

IRLS generally grow rapidly and awkwardly just before the period at which they are destined to assume the form and habits of womanhood. Self-consciousness may, as we have seen, commence in very early years; but if this calamity should happen, it will be even more directly and obviously the result of neglect, mismanagement, or evil communications, than is the like premature awakening in boys. Under the care of a prudent mother, or sensible governess, amid suitable surroundings, girlhood should merge in womanhood before the subjective experiences of sex begin to exert a powerful influence on the mind.

The special functions of female life are destined to occupy so prominent a place in the economy

of her nature, that a girl must needs be conscious of the physiological development which occurs when she approaches maturity. It is not, however, necessary, nor has Nature designed, that the advent of self-consciousness shall be synchronous with the physical evolution. A serious mistake is made when by changes in her dress, in the altered bearing of those around her, a young girl is prematurely inspired with the feeling that she has reached the confines of womanhood.

The policy of female education and the fashion of the day err greatly in this respect. Children of even tender years are costumed like women, and girls scarcely in their teens are inducted, by example and the influence of dress, into the ways and affectations of a period of life fully ten years in advance of their age. It is, of course, impossible that habits can be formed and a set mode of life adopted, without the reaction of thought on function, and function on the organism.

These influences of thought and habit, which I have ventured to designate mental reflexes, are among the most potent of the forces that produce and control development. If attention be concentrated upon a particular organ, its func

tions will be stimulated; and, in conformity with the law of nutrition and growth, use promotes development. In this way, anything which brings the subject of sex strongly home to the mind of a youth, whether boy-man or girl-woman, is likely to expedite the advance towards maturity, and to force the growth of parts and feelings of the personality it is desirable to restrain.

During the stage of special evolution, and particularly when development is unnaturally stimulated either by thought or act, the health is apt to suffer. It is at this juncture hereditary diseases make their appearance, and ancestral traits of character and family likeness are reproduced.

The "awkward age" in girls may be very short or prolonged, but it is in the later weeks, or months, of that period the traits and likeness to which we have alluded become apparent. A girl who in earlier life has, perhaps, borne a noticeable resemblance to her father, first loses his peculiar cast of countenance or gait, then puts on a vague expression of weariness and ungainly stupidity or sullenness, and at length almost suddenly grows like her mother or some female relative with whom she is closely associated, or