their digestion is good, and they have the power of expelling
with impunity that superabundance of aliment which in others is a source
of distension, flatulence, and pain.

2486. The length of time an infant should be suckled must depend much on
the health and strength of the child, and the health of the mother, and
the quantity and quality of her milk; though, when all circumstances are
favourable, it should never be less than _nine_, nor exceed _fifteen_
months; but perhaps the true time will be found in the medium between
both. But of this we may be sure, that Nature never ordained a child to
live on suction after having endowed it with teeth to bite and to grind;
and nothing is more out of place and unseemly than to hear a child, with
a set of twenty teeth, ask for "the breast."

2487. The practice of protracted wet-nursing is hurtful to the mother,
by keeping up an uncalled-for, and, after the proper time, an unhealthy
drain on her system, while the child either derives no benefit from what
it no longer requires, or it produces a positive injury on its
constitution. After the period when Nature has ordained the child shall
live by other means, the secretion of milk becomes thin and
deteriorated, showing in the flabby flesh and puny features of the child
both its loss of nutritious properties and the want of more stimulating
aliment.

2488. Though we have said that twelve months is about the medium time a
baby should be suckled, we by no means wish to imply that a child should
be fed exclusively on milk for its first year; quite the reverse; the
infant can hardly be too soon made independent of the mother. Thus,
should illness assail her, her milk fail, or any domestic cause abruptly
cut off the natural supply, the child having been annealed to an
artificial diet, its life might be safely carried on without seeking for
a wet-nurse, and without the slightest danger to its system.

2489. The advantage to the mother of early accustoming the child to
artificial food is as considerable to herself as beneficial to her
infant; the demand on her physical strength in the first instance will
be less severe and exhausting, the child will sleep longer on a less
rapidly digestible aliment, and yield to both more quiet nights, and the
mother will be more at liberty to go out for business or pleasure,
another means of sustenance being at hand till her return. Besides these
advantages, by a judicious blending of the two systems