some passes into the intestines, and there becomes putrid, as the
horribly offensive evacuations prove. They come away, large and solid
and white, for the secretion of the bile is inadequate to complete that
second digestion which should take place in the intestines; or else the
irritation which they excite occasions diarrh[oe]a--a green putty-like
matter comes away mixed with a profuse watery discharge.

What wonder is it that in such circumstances the body should waste most
rapidly; for it is forced from its own tissues to supply those elements
essential to the maintenance of life, which its food contains in far too
scanty a proportion. Every organ of the body contributes to the general
support, and life is thus prolonged, if no kind disease curtail it,
until each member has furnished all that it can spare, and then death
takes place from starvation, its approach having been slower, but the
suffering which preceded it not therefore less, than if all food had
been withheld.

Do not suppose that in this description I have been painting too dark a
picture, or that children who die thus have been exceptionally weak, and
so under the acknowledged difficulties of hand-feeding at length became
consumptive. They do not die of consumption, and in a large number of
instances their bodies show no trace of consumptive disease, but present
appearances characteristic of this condition of starvation, and of this
only.

Along the whole track of the stomach and intestines are the signs of
irritation and inflammation. The glands of the bowels are enlarged,
actual ulceration of the stomach is often met with; while so
far-reaching is the influence of this slow starvation, that even the
substance of the kidneys and of the brain are often found softened and
otherwise altered, though it might not unreasonably have been supposed
that these organs lay quite beyond the reach of any disorder of
digestion.

No doubt all these grievous results do not always follow; and sometimes
children exceptionally strong manage to take and digest enough even of
unsuitable food to maintain their health, and may as they grow up, and
the changes take place in the system which fit it for a varied diet,
even become robust. In the majority of instances, however, hand-fed
infants, and those especially who have been brought up chiefly on
farinaceous food, are less strong than others, and are more apt to
develop any latent tendency to hereditary disease, such as