thy to admit of a constant and nutritious
secretion being performed without detriment to the physical integrity of
the mother, or injury to the child who imbibes it; and as stimulants are
inadmissible, if not positively injurious, the substitute required is to
be found in _malt liquor_. To the lady accustomed to her Madeira and
sherry, this may appear a very vulgar potation for a delicate young
mother to take instead of the more subtle and condensed elegance of
wine; but as we are writing from experience, and with the avowed object
of imparting useful facts and beneficial remedies to our readers, we
allow no social distinctions to interfere with our legitimate object.

2474. We have already said that the suckling mother should avoid
stimulants, especially spirituous ones; and though something of this
sort is absolutely necessary to support her strength during the
exhausting process, it should be rather of a _tonic_ than of a
stimulating character; and as all wines contain a large percentage of
brandy, they are on that account less beneficial than the pure juice of
the fermented grape might be. But there is another consideration to be
taken into account on this subject; the mother has not only to think of
herself, but also of her infant. Now wines, especially port wine, very
often--indeed, most frequently--affect the baby's bowels, and what might
have been grateful to the mother becomes thus a source of pain and
irritation to the child afterwards. Sherry is less open to this
objection than other wines, yet still _it_ very frequently does
influence the second participator, or the child whose mother has taken
it.

2475. The nine or twelve months a woman usually suckles must be, to some
extent, to most mothers, a period of privation and penance, and unless
she is deaf to the cries of her baby, and insensible to its kicks and
plunges, and will not see in such muscular evidences the griping pains
that rack her child, she will avoid every article that can remotely
affect the little being who draws its sustenance from her. She will see
that the babe is acutely affected by all that in any way influences her,
and willingly curtail her own enjoyments, rather than see her infant
rendered feverish, irritable, and uncomfortable. As the best tonic,
then, and the most efficacious indirect stimulant that a mother can take
at such times, there is no potation equal to _porter_ and _stout_, or,
what is better still, an equal part of porte