and thus respiration is discovered, and is
continued throughout our lives, as often as the oppression begins to recur.
Many infants, both of the human creature, and of quadrupeds, struggle for a
minute after they are born before they begin to breathe, (Haller Phys. T.
8. p. 400. ib pt. 2. p. 1). Mr. Buffon thinks the action of the dry air
upon the nerves of smell of new-born animals, by producing an endeavour to
sneeze, may contribute to induce this first inspiration, and that the
rarefaction of the air by the warmth of the lungs contributes to induce
expiration, (Hist. Nat. Tom. 4. p. 174). Which latter it may effect by
producing a disagreeable sensation by its delay, and a consequent effort to
relieve it. Many children sneeze before they respire, but not all, as far
as I have observed, or can learn from others.

At length, by the direction of its sense of smell, or by the officious care
of its mother, the young animal approaches the odoriferous rill of its
future nourishment, already experienced to swallow. But in the act of
swallowing, it is necessary nearly to close the mouth, whether the creature
be immersed in the fluid it is about to drink, or not: hence, when the
child first attempts to suck, it does not slightly compress the nipple
between its lips, and suck as an adult person would do, by absorbing the
milk; but it takes the whole nipple into its mouth for this purpose,
compresses it between its gums, and thus repeatedly chewing (as it were)
the nipple, presses out the milk, exactly in the same manner as it is drawn
from the teats of cows by the hands of the milkmaid. The celebrated Harvey
observes, that the foetus in the womb must have sucked in a part of its
nourishment, because it knows how to suck the minute it is born, as any one
may experience by putting a finger between its lips, and because in a few
days it forgets this art of sucking, and cannot without some difficulty
again acquire it, (Exercit. de Gener. Anim. 48). The same observation is
made by Hippocrates.

A little further experience teaches the young animal to suck by absorption,
as well as by compression; that is, to open the chest as in the beginning
of respiration, and thus to rarefy the air in the mouth, that the pressure
of the denser external atmosphere may contribute to force out the milk.

The chick yet in the shell has learnt to drink by swallowing a part of the
white of the egg for its food; but not having experienced how to take up