of feeding, the
infant will acquire greater constitutional strength, so that, if
attacked by sickness or disease, it will have a much greater chance of
resisting its virulence than if dependent alone on the mother, whose
milk, affected by fatigue and the natural anxiety of the parent for her
offspring, is at such a time neither good in its properties nor likely
to be beneficial to the patient.

2490. All that we have further to say on suckling is an advice to
mothers, that if they wish to keep a sound and unchapped nipple, and
possibly avoid what is called a "broken breast," never to put it up with
a wet nipple, but always to have a soft handkerchief in readiness, and
the moment that delicate part is drawn from the child's mouth, to dry it
carefully of the milk and saliva that moisten it; and, further, to make
a practice of suckling from each breast alternately.

Dress and Dressing, Washing, &c.

2491. As respects the dress and dressing of a new-born infant, or of a
child in arms, during any stage of its nursing, there are few women who
will require us to give them guidance or directions for their
instruction; and though a few hints on the subject may not be out of
place here, yet most women intuitively "take to a baby," and, with a
small amount of experience, are able to perform all the little offices
necessary to its comfort and cleanliness with ease and completeness. We
shall, therefore, on this delicate subject hold our peace; and only,
from afar, _hint_ "at what we would," leaving our suggestions to be
approved or rejected, according as they chime with the judgment and the
apprehension of our motherly readers.

2492. In these days of intelligence, there are few ladies who have not,
in all probability, seen the manner in which the Indian squaw, the
aborigines of Polynesia, and even the Lapp and Esquimaux, strap down
their baby on a board, and by means of a loop suspend it to the bough of
a tree, hang it up to the rafters of the hut, or on travel, dangle it on
their backs, outside the domestic implements, which, as the slave of her
master, man, the wronged but uncomplaining woman carries, in order that
her lord may march in unhampered freedom. Cruel and confining as this
system of "backboard" dressing may seem to our modern notions of freedom
and exercise, it is positively less irksome, less confining, and
infinitely less prejudicial to health, than the mummying of children by
our grandmothers a hundred, ay, fi