of sound and light, but we can so arrange matters that he is not disturbed by loud sounds and bright lights, and that he is not moved more than is necessary.  Sudden unexpected movements are especially harmful.  Jogging him up and down, patting him on the back, expostulation, and entreaties are all out of place and do all the harm in the world.  The first bath should be as expeditious as possible, and above all the baby must not be chilled by tedious exposure.  Cold irritates his nervous system more than anything else, unless it be excessive warmth.  In preserving the proper temperature so that we do not render the child restless by excess of heat or by excess of cold, we too-civilised people have made our own difficulties.  We have exaggerated the completeness of the sudden separation of mother and child which nature decrees.  It is the function of all mother animals to approximate the unstable temperature of the newly born to their own by the close contact of their bodies, which provide just the proper heat.  Labour is nowadays so complicated and exhausting a process for mothers that, all things considered, we are wise in completing the separation of mother and child and in removing the baby to his own cot.  But the difficulty remains, and we must arrange that any artificial heating needed is constant and of proper degree.

If the baby is very restless and irritable, too wide awake and too conscious of his surroundings, the all-important task of getting him to the breast and getting him to draw the milk into the breast is apt to be difficult.  His sucking is a purely reflex and involuntary act.  It can be produced by anything which gently presses down the tongue, and a finger placed in the proper position will provoke the movement without the child’s consciousness being aroused.  The placid child whose mind is at rest will suck well and strongly.  If, on the other hand, the brain is too much stimulated and the child is restless and irritable, the reflex act of suction is inhibited, and it is a difficult matter to get the child to the breast.  He is too eager, mouthing, and gulping, and spluttering.  Or sometimes his mental sufferings seem too much for his appetite, and though wide awake and crying loudly, he refuses to grasp the nipple, turning his head away and wriggling blindly hither and thither.  This effect of mental unrest on the newborn infant is often disastrous, because it is one of the common causes of the failure of women to nurse their children.  This is not the place to sketch in detail a scheme for the proper technique of breast nursing, a matter which is much misunderstood at the present day.  It will be enough shortly to say that an efficient supply of milk depends upon the complete and regular emptying of the breast.  The breasts of all mothers will secrete milk if strong and vigorous suction is applied to the nipple by the child.  If anything interferes with suction, the milk does not appear or, if it has appeared, it rapidly declines in amount.