generally known, that it
will with no less certainty retard and alter the nature of the secretion
furnished by the breasts of the lactescent female. Violent affections of
the mind will cause the milk to become thin and yellowish, and to
acquire noxious properties: even the fond mother's anxiety, while
hanging over the couch of her sick infant, will be sufficient to render
it unfit for the sustenance of the object of her solicitude.

The state also of the stomach and bowels and the diet of the nurse
materially and constantly influence the nature of the lacteal secretion.

The milk, besides, is liable to deterioration from another cause,
namely, the recurrence of the usual periodical appearance--for should
this take place in a nurse, it is agreed that her milk is liable to
produce disorders in the child who imbibes it; which could not happen,
if the former possessed its ordinary component parts, and retained its
natural properties.

The recurrence, moreover, of pregnancy in the lactescent female may
render the milk of a bad quality, and will invariably lessen its
quantity. Mr. Burns asserts that in these cases the milk 'does not
become hurtful,' but in this opinion I must beg leave to differ from
him; since I have repeatedly seen it, from this cause, palpably altered
in appearance, and have observed diarrh[oe]a and great debility produced
in the children who were suckled with it.

An almost universally received opinion among females, and, indeed, one
very frequently entertained by members of the medical profession, is,
that while a woman continues to nurse her infant she will not again
become pregnant; but this, as a general proposition, is unquestionably
erroneous; it is even doubtful whether such opinion will hold good in a
majority of instances. The continuance of lactation will very generally,
it is true, tend to prevent the recurrence of the periodical phenomenon;
yet, nevertheless, it will not in every instance prevent pregnancy[B].
Should, however, a woman with an infant at the breast again become
pregnant, (a circumstance that very frequently occurs, and of which,
from the _general though not invariable_ absence of those criteria by
which this fact is accustomed to be recognised, she is not aware until
it has made some progress,) one of two things will usually take place;
either she will miscarry, or her milk will become impoverished in
quality and diminished in quantity. Nor is this wonderful:--it was not
int