will not be good and perfect blood; or, lastly, if it
_seem_ to make good blood, it may still be faulty, so that the
particles which should be applied to build up or repair the system, are
either not used, or if used, answer the purpose but imperfectly.

We hence see how little prepared a large proportion of the community,
are, to judge of the digestibility or fitness of a substance for
infants, by their own observation and experience merely; and how much
more wisely they act, in contenting themselves with giving them--at
least until they have teeth--such food only as the Author of nature
seems to have assigned them; especially when thus course, is precisely
that which is recommended or sanctioned by nearly every judicious
physician, as well as by almost all our writers on health.

SEC. 6. _On Feeding before Teething._

Having laid down the general rule, that until the appearance of teeth,
the sole food of an infant should be the milk of its own mother, I
proceed to speak of some of the more common exceptions to it.

EXCEPTION 1.--The first of these is when the supply furnished by the
mother is scanty. There may be two causes of the scantiness of this
supply; 1st, the want of suitable nourishment by the mother; and, 2dly,
a feeble constitution, or bad health. In the former case, it should be
her first object, as it undoubtedly will be that of her physician, to
improve the quality of her diet; and in the latter, to restore her
health, or at least invigorate her constitution.

In regard to the proper diet of a _mother_, as such, as well as the
general management which her case requires, a volume might be written
without exhausting the subject. But I have already said as much on this
subject, in another place, as my limits will permit.

But we cannot wait for the mother's health to improve, and allow the
infant to suffer, in the mean time, for a due supply of food. The
appropriate question now is, How shall such a supply be furnished?

This should be done by means of an article resembling in its properties,
as closely as possible, the mother's milk. For this purpose, we have
only to mix with a suitable quantity of new cow's milk, one third of
water, and sweeten it a little with loaf sugar. This is to be given to
the child, at suitable intervals, and in proper quantities, by means of
a common sucking bottle. It is, indeed, sometimes given with the spoon;
but the bottle is better.

To the question, whether the chil