or any of the ordinary preparations employed by nurses for this purpose, and the chances will probably be as ten to one that acidity, vomiting, colic, griping, and jaundice, will supervene."

Very vigorous and healthy infants, it is true, often pass through the gastric irritation and distress produced by improper nourishment soon after birth, without sustaining any permanent injury in health, or constitutional infirmity. After four or five months of flatulence, griping, and disordered bowels, the digestive powers gradually become inured to the impressions of the food, and a considerable degree of health and vigor is obtained. In many cases, however, the irritation which is thus kept up in the stomach and bowels does not pass off in so favorable a manner. Jaundice, chronic and unmanageable diarrhoea, emaciation, slow fever, enlarged mesenteric glands, dropsy in the brain, scrofula, chronic affections of the liver, epilepsy, and other dangerous maladies may, and not unfrequently do, result from this state of the alimentary canal, during infancy.

One of the very best substitutes for the milk of the mother, or of a healthy nurse, is Liebig's soup. It comes certainly the nearest, in its nutritive properties, to the breast milk of the mother. It is made by mixing together a half ounce each of wheaten flour and malt meal, and seven and a half grains of bicarbonate of potash. To this mixture is added, first, one ounce of water, and then five ounces of milk. It is now to be heated over a gentle fire, stirring it all the` time, until it begins to thicken; when the vessel is to be removed from the fire, and its contents stirred for ten minutes longer. Placed upon the fire again, they become still thicker; they are then to be removed as before; after being again put upon the fire and brought to a boil, they are to be passed through a fine sieve to separate the bran, when the soup is ready for use.

After dentition has made some progress, a portion of gum, barley, or rice water may, with propriety, be added to the sweetened milk; or we may give, in addition to it, a little plain beef or mutton broth, or the juice of these meats when not over-roasted. As a variety of food is more apt to disagree with the stomach of the child than one simple article when properly selected, therefore, in every instance in which the infant appears to be well nourished there should be no hurry in changing or adding to its diet, which, until several of its teeth have been cut, should consist, pretty much, of the articles above enumerated.

Whatever may be the food with which the infant is nourished, whether it be solely the breast-milk of the mother, a mixture of cow's milk, water, and sugar, or Liebig's soup, care should be taken that it be furnished to it only in such quantities, and at such intervals as are absolutely necessary to its proper nourishment. The stomach should never be overloaded; nor should the process of digestion, which, though extremely rapid in the earlier periods of life, requires, nevertheless, a certain period for its perfect accomplishment, be interfered with by the too frequent introduction of food into the stomach.

In the early period of infancy, the rapidity with which the diges

tion is effected requires that the stomach be supplied with food at very short intervals; but as the infant increases in age, these intervals are gradually to be lengthened; so that, while at first it is put to the breast every few hours, it subsequently requires the breast only three or four times in the course of the day and night.

The rule to be observed in nursing or feeding an infant is, never to withhold from it the breast or bottle when it indicates a desire to partake of it, but, at the same time, by no means to provoke it to partake of either when it exhibits no such desire. It is surprising how very early, by a neglect of this rule, a morbid appetite may be created. It is too often the custom with mothers and nurses to take it for granted that, because an infant cries, it must be hungry, and hence to coax it to take the breast; or, when fretful from any cause, to attempt to appease it by administering food.

No fixed rule can be laid down as to the number of times, or proper periods, at which an infant should partake of nourishment; the natural wants of its system should alone be consulted; and these are made known, even in the youngest infant, by signs which the most superficial observer can scarcely mistake.

Instead of having the child, when awake, constantly hanging at the breast, by a little care it may be soon taught to require it only at regular periods, while the danger of over-distending its stomach with milk will, in a great measure, be avoided. It is not uncommon for an infant to be accustomed to lie all night at the breast; a practice from which more or less injury must necessarily result, not only by its inducing the child to overload its stomach, but by interrupting its sleep, and by causing it to breathe for many hours a confined, heated, and impure atmosphere.

Infants who are confined entirely to the breast-milk of a healthy mother or nurse, or, at least, with no other addition to it than cow's milk diluted with water and slightly sweetened, until after the first dentition is accomplished, have always appeared to us to thrive well, and to be seldom troubled with affections of the stomach and bowels. Nevertheless, after dentition has made some progress, we may, with great propriety, allow them, once or twice in the course of the day, in place of the milk and water, to partake of rice flour, arrowroot, or tapioca, prepared with milk, and well sweetened-milk in which grated cracker or stale bread has been wellstirred-animal broths with bread or cracker mixed in them-or roasted potatoes reduced to a fine thin pulp with cream. These articles should, however, be given in moderation, and be invariably prepared fresh each time they are used.

Dr. Gumprecht, of Hamburg, praises highly, in a communication published in the Journal für Kinderkrankheiten, the carrot pap as an article of food for young children. It is made by mixing an ounce of finely-scraped, full-grown carrot with two cupfuls of cold soft water, and allowing it to stand for twelve hours, it being frequently stirred during that period. The fluid portion is then to be strained off and the residue pressed to deprive it of the juice it still retains. The fluid thus obtained is to be mixed with a sufficient quantity of

powdered biscuit, bruised crust of bread, or farina, etc., to form it into a pap, and then placed over a slow fire, care being taken to prevent its boiling, which would coagulate the albumen. When 1 removed from the fire, the pap is to be sweetened with loaf sugar. According to Dr. Gumprecht, this preparation presents the combination of albumen, gluten, starch, sugar, fat, and the phosphates of lime and magnesia, required in the food of young children. It has been employed by Müller, of Hamburgh, Mauthner, of Vienna, Münchmeyer, of Lünenberg, and other distinguished practitioners, all of whom bear decided testimony to its value.

For infants brought up by hand, the following is recommended as preferable to the pap made as above. One ounce of very finely scraped yellow carrot, and two drachms of biscuit powder, with two cupfuls of cold soft water, are to be allowed to stand in a covered vessel, in a cool place, for twelve hours, and frequently stirred. Being strained through a linen cloth, a pinch of salt is to be added to the fluid, which is then to be sweetened with sugar-candy, and given to the child, at a proper temperature, by means of the sucking bottle. The foregoing preparations cannot be used for the diet of infants when there is any tendency to diarrhoea.

Until after the first dentition is completed, solid animal food, in our opinion, should form no portion of an infant's diet; it is apt to increase the febrile excitement to which the system is already predisposed, and to augment the irritability of the digestive organs, which is an almost invariable attendant, to a greater or less extent, upon the process of teething. Subsequently, however, to the completion of the first set of teeth, a small portion of the more nutritive and digestible meats may be allowed, when the child is in perfect health, once a day; but it should never constitute his principal food; this should consist of preparations of milk with various farinaceous substances, plain custard, soft-boiled eggs, bread and milk, and plain rice pudding. "Many people, from a mistaken expectation of strengthening weakly children, give them much animal food, sometimes twice or thrice a day: but it will be found much more frequently to add to their debility than to increase their strength. Those children, on the whole, who eat the least animal food, are the most healthy." (Clarke.)

Infants experience, from even a very early age, the sensation of thirst, and are highly gratified and refreshed by a few mouthfuls of cool water, which, particularly during the period of teething, they earnestly and repeatedly solicit, and swallow with avidity when presented. The gratification of this craving should not, therefore, be neglected, but the infant should be offered occasionally a portion of pure water, cool, but not decidedly cold. From the inattention of mothers and nurses, young infants suffering from thirst are not unfrequently refused the only effectual means of gratifying it; and under the supposition that they are hungry, are made to take the breast, or food is forced into their stomachs, of which they stand in no need, and which rather enhances than diminishes the uneasy sensation

they experience; while a few spoonfuls of water would immediately satisfy their wants and quiet their restlessness or crying.

As a generel rule, it is undoubtedly a duty incumbent upon every mother to nourish her own infant; occasionally, however, when from disease, any constitutional infirmity, or a defect in the nutritive properties of her milk, the mother is incapacitated from performing this delightful task, it becomes necessary, as well for her own good as for that of her offspring, to transfer the care and nourishment of the latter to a proper nurse. The choice of a proper nurse is, however, a matter of no little importance.

It is essential, in the first place, that the female at whose breast an infant is to be nourished, should be in the prime of life; between twenty and thirty years is the most desirable age, though a few years below or beyond this period will be of little importance, provided she is of a sound constitution, and enjoys perfect health. This latter is an all-essential requisite, upon which the due support of the infant and its future health will in a very great degree depend. No female, therefore, should be selected as a child's nurse who is laboring under any bodily infirmity; or who is even strongly predisposed to consumption, scrofula, or convulsive diseases. Her breast should be full, firm, and well formed, the nipples sufficiently salient, and yielding the milk upon the slightest pressure. Her catamenial discharge should be entirely suspended. Her milk, also, should be as nearly adapted to the age of the infant as possible; a slight difference is, however, no objection; and the fact of her milk being adapted to a somewhat younger infant than the one she is about to suckle, is of less importance than if it were adapted to one many months older.

Not only should the foster mother enjoy the physical advantages just enumerated, but she should possess, likewise, great mildness of disposition, considerable cheerfulness of temper, and an inexhaustible stock of patience.

There are a number of moral defects which render a female totally unfit to give nourishment to an infant, or to assume the charge of it in any manner. Thus, an irritability of disposition, giving rise to frequent gusts of violent passion, has been known to produce so deleterious an effect upon the milk, as to render the infant liable to convulsions on partaking of it during or immediately after such exhibitions of ungovernable temper. Grief, envy, hatred, fear, jealousy, and peevishness, likewise, independently of their abstracting the mind from the duties necessary to be fulfilled towards the infant, by their influence upon her health, tend so to alter the qualities of the nurse's milk, as to cause it to disorder the stomach of the infant, and, at the same time, render it altogether unfitted for the proper nourishment of the latter.

We take too little into consideration the pernicious and long-continued, if not permanent, injury, which the character of the nurse may have upon the temper, the intellectual powers, and the disposi tion of an infant, by producing, through the nourishment she imparts to it, as well as by her treatment, permanent derangement of the

digestive function, with consequent imperfect nutrition of the several organs, and disturbance of the nervous system.

From their writings, we find that the ancients had a much better acquaintance with this important truth than is evinced at the present day. The advice of Plutarch to mothers who refuse to nurse their own offspring is, that "they should be cautious, at least to choose carefully the nurses and attendants of their children; not taking the first that offers, but rather selecting the best that can be obtained. These should, in the first place, be Greeks in morals; for not more attention does the body of man require from the period of his birth, to insure the growth of his limbs in strength and symmetry, than does his mind, in order that to his moral qualities may be imparted the same firmness and perfection as to his physical. During the period of infancy the tender and plastic mind receives readily the impressions made upon it, and assumes whatever form we may desire to give it."

Much, it is true, of the physical as well as moral evil resulting from the misconduct of a nurse may be obviated, if the mother still exerts a constant watchfulness over the welfare of her offspring, and does not suppose that, because she is obliged to delegate to another the task of giving nourishment to her infant, she is thereby exonerated from the duty of attending herself constantly to the promotion of its health and comfort.

The diet of a nurse-whether that nurse be the mother or a stranger should be a subject of strict attention; the quality of the food she takes exerting a powerful influence upon the character of the nourishment she imparts to the infant at her breast, and consequently upon the health of the latter. Her diet should consist of such wholesome aliment as is in ordinary use, simply cooked, and eaten in moderation. Soups properly prepared, fresh beef or mutton, plainly roasted or broiled, with a proper amount of vegetables, are to be preferred to made dishes, rich gravies, and highly seasoned viands, as well as to salted and smoked meats. As to vegetables, the different leguminous and farinaceous seeds or roots, variously prepared-the saccharine fruits of the season, either cooked or perfectly ripe-and the various dishes consisting of milk and of vegetables, in common use, are all well adapted as food for a nurse; these, with bread, should compose a considerable portion of her diet. Acid and unripe fruits, pickles, and similar articles, will very generally prove injurious to her milk, and of course to the infant she suckles.

"I have known," remarks Marley, "a plentiful secretion of milk to be diminished in quantity, from the over anxiety of the mother, who, thinking it necessary her nurse should live well, allowed her to eat a greater proportion of animal food than her stomach could digest. Some, who are fond of indulging an excessive and gross appetite, take advantage of their situation as wet nurses to satisfy their propensity for eating, under the plea of having two to support; while others object to certain meats, as being injurious to their little charge. In fact, it is well known that upon taking the situation of wet nurses, women who, a short time previously, would have been