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REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS . The Earl's Heirs. Bythe author of" East Lynne." 1 vol., 8 vo. Philada: T. B. Peterson & Brothers.-The author of this novel is an Englishwoman, who has made "the hit ofthe season," in London, by the publication of " East Lynne," a novel which has already run through three editions abroad, and sold by tens of thousands here. The present fiction is even better than " East Lynne," and has the advantage of being published first in the United States : the Messrs. Peterson owning the copy-right. The distinguishing merit of Mrs. Wood, for such we believe to be the author's name, is the skillful manner in which she constructs her plots. Novels have been multiplied so much, in these latter days, that novelty in the story has become almost impossible. Every reader can tell, after a chapter or two, how all is to turn out : whom Harry is to marry-which of the rivals Lucy is to select-when the angry father will relent . Only two writers, indeed, can lay any claim to originality in the management of their incidents. One of these is Wilkie Collins. "The Woman in White," the best of his works, is a master-piece of constructive ability. No one can fully estimate its merits, in this respect, who has not read it a second time. The first reading, in its breathless absorption, hurries even the critic on, till he loses his calmer judgment. It is only when the book is read again, and with the cool eye of rigid analysis, that its wonderful mechanism becomes apparent. Then we see how astonishing the clock-work is, what wheels within wheels, yet how harmoniously all move together. Mrs. Wood is the only other novelist who exhibits this constructive ability in anything like perfection. Her “ East Lynue” was remarkable for this characteristic ; but " The Earl's Heirs" is even more so. In " East Lynne" many things happen which are highly improbable, and on one of these the whole denouement turns. In "The Earl's Heirs" there is nothing of this. From first to last the incidents are not only natural, but evolve themselves also in natural sequence. Consequently the tale is one of intense power. Nor is this the only point in which "The Earl's Heirs" is superior to " East Lynne." There is one character in "The Earl's Heirs," we mean Mrs. Pepperfly, which would not have been unworthy of Dickens himself. The volume is printed in double column octavo, and sold for the low price of fifty cents. For that sum the publishers will even send a copy by mail, free of postage. Leisure Hours in Town. By the " Country Parson." 1 vol. 12 mo. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.-Another delightful volume of those chatty essays, which have made the name of the "Country Parson" a familiar word in thousands of households, not only in Great Britain, but in America also. Among the most charming of the papers in this collection , if any one can be more charming than another, is that entitled "The Sorrows of Childhood." In reading it we go back to our own boyish days. The man who wrote that paper, whatever else he may be, is a man with a young heart in his bosom yet ; and we venture to say, that, even if he survives to four-score and ten, he will have a young heart still. A portrait of the author, we are glad to see, accompanies the volume. The " Country Parson" does not look, however, precisely as we had pictured him to ourselves. His face is suggestive of ill-health, if not of sad experiences ; yet it is genial, nevertheless, and with a broad though low brow. The volume is very handsomely printed and bound. Price one dollar and a quarter. The Young Step-Mother; or, A Chronicle of Mistakes. By the author of " The Heir of Redclyffe." 2 vols., 12 mo. New York: D. Appleton & Co.-We think this the best novel Miss Yonge has written, if we except " The Heir of Redclyffe;" and many persons, perhaps, will regard it as superior even to that. The general characteristics of our author are well known to the reading community ; so we need not here enlarge on them : while popular with almost everybody, she
BOOKS .
has, and deservedly, her own circle of enthusiastic admirers. Her books always teach a lesson. Nobody can read one of them without being the better for it. Her principal characters, too, are always more or less refined : she knows, what few novelists do, how to draw a real lady or gentleman. The volumes are handsomely printed, and bound in paper covers Price one dollar for the two. To our taste it would have been better to have bound the book in cloth; for it is one that most persons, at least, would wish to preserve. HEALTH DEPARTMENT. INFANT TREATMENT.- The dress should be simple, and as free from pins as possible, and above all of needles, which have sometimes become imbedded in the flesh. A small shirt next the skin protects this delicate covering from the flannel, which should be of the white kind, and should never be allowed to continue when it is wet, as the odor of the ammoniacal gas which is evolved by the heat of the child's body is most offensive, and extremely deleterious to its lungs. The employment of a second flannel over the first, to prevent the upper clothes from becoming wet, is a very baneful error, as the surface of the skin is chilled by its retained moisture, and is the common cause of chafing and ulceration about the folds. The head of an infant should not be too closely covered : the blood is circulating there so freely, that too close a cap even is often liable to produce real disorder of the membranes of the brain; but it is scarcely possible to keep the lower part of the body and the arms too warm, which being at a distance from the heart, the center of circulation, will frequently become chilled to that degree as sometimes to produce a loss of vitality, and very often materially weaken the action of the limbs, and this especially in feeble children. A deficiency of blood thus circulating in the limbs, the head will be too abundantly supplied-the consequences of this excess will be immediately anticipated. During the changing of the dress, moderate friction should always be employed, especially on the belly: it is agreeable to the feelings ofthe infant, and promotes free and healthy circulation, and, above all, assists the process of digestion and prevents the accumulation of wind. EXERCISE.-Infants may, at the end of the second week, be taken into the external air, if they are healthy and the weather prove favorable ; and this exercise may be repeated daily on each second day. They should be kept in the horizontal position, on a flat wicker tray (furnished with a pillow and thin clothes), to prevent distortion of the spine and angular breasts. The child should be, during its exercise, free from all tight bandages or swathes. BATHING.- If we reflect on the importance of the skin, it will require little argument to establish the benefit of bathing. Nothing tends to preserve the healthy action of the skin so much as washing; hence its great importance during the infantile period when direct exercise is impossible. In appreciating the employment of cold bathing, it is essential that we should notice the state of the child after it has been plunged into cold water. If it appears lively, and if there is a diffused redness and warmth breaking forth over the body as it is rubbed dry, then undoubtedly the bath has been beneficial, and a repetition is indicated . But if, on the contrary, there is a chilliness and pallor over the skin-if there is an absence of lively action- if the countenance is anxious-the limbs rigid and benumbed, and should these symptoms, moreover, continue after the child is dry and dressed, then it will be highly dangerous to resort again to cold bathing. In those infantile constitutions, then, where the powers of life are evidently not adequate to the production of reaction, the tepid bath is the more salutary. Its temperature
