scrofula or
consumption, than members of the same family who have been brought up at
the breast.

Enough has already been said to satisfy all but those who do not wish
to be convinced, how incumbent it is on every mother to try to suckle
her child. But though it is most desirable that for the first six months
of their existence children should derive their support entirely from
their mother, and that until they are a year or at least nine months old
their mother's milk should form the chief part of their food, yet many
circumstances may occur to render the full adoption of this plan
impracticable. In some women the supply of milk, although at first
abundant, yet in the course of a few weeks undergoes so considerable a
diminution as to become altogether insufficient for the child's support;
while in other cases, although its quantity continues undiminished, yet
from some defect in its quality it does not furnish the infant with
proper nutriment. Cases of the former kind are not unusual in young,
tolerably healthy, but not robust women; while instances of the latter
are met with chiefly among those who have given birth to several
children, whose health is bad, or among the poor, who have been
enfeebled by hard living or hard work. The children in the former case
thrive well enough for the first six weeks or two months, but then,
obtaining the milk in too small a quantity to meet the demands of their
rapid growth, they pine and fret, they lose both flesh and strength,
and, unless the food given to supply their wants be judiciously
selected, their stomach and bowels become disordered, and nutrition,
instead of being aided, is more seriously impaired. In the case of the
mother whose milk disagrees with the child from some defect in its
quality, the signs are in general more pronounced. Either the infant
vomits more than that small quantity which a babe who has sucked
greedily or overmuch often rejects immediately on leaving the breast, or
it is purged, or it seems never satisfied, does not gain flesh, does not
thrive, cries much and is not happy. In these cases, too, the mother's
supply of milk, though abundant at first, diminishes in a few weeks; she
feels exhausted, and suffers from back-ache, or from pain in the breasts
each time after the child's sucking; while, further, her general
weakness leaves her no alternative but to wean the child.

Knowing the attempt to rear her child entirely at the breast to be
vain, the mo