his evil, the solid matter, whether animal or vegetable, be
previously broken into small masses, the infant will instantly swallow
it, but it will be unmixed with saliva. Yet in every day's observation
it will be seen, that children are so fed in their most tender age; and
it is not wonderful that present evils are by this means produced, and
the foundation laid for future disease."[FN#11]

[FN#11] Dr. John Clarke's Commentaries.

The diet pointed out, then, is to be continued until the second year.
Great care, however, is necessary in its management; for this period of
infancy is ushered in by the process of teething, which is commonly
connected with more or less of disorder of the system. Any error,
therefore, in diet or regimen is now to be most carefully avoided. 'Tis
true that the infant, who is of a sound and healthy constitution, in
whom, therefore, the powers of life are energetic, and who up to this
time has been nursed upon the breast of its parent, and now commences
an artificial diet for the first time, disorder is scarcely
perceptible, unless from the operation of very efficient causes. Not
so, however, with the child who from the first hour of its birth has
been nourished upon artificial food. Teething under such circumstances
is always attended with more or less of disturbance of the frame, and
disease of the most dangerous character but too frequently ensues. It
is at this age, too, that all infectious and eruptive fevers are most
prevalent; worms often begin to form, and diarrhoea, thrush, rickets,
cutaneous eruptions, etc. manifest themselves, and the foundation of
strumous disease is originated or developed. A judicious management of
diet will prevent some of these complaints, and mitigate the violence
of others when they occur.

THE KIND OF ARTIFICIAL DIET MOST SUITABLE UNDER THE DIFFERENT
COMPLAINTS TO WHICH INFANTS ARE LIABLE.

Artificial food, from mismanagement and other causes, will now and
then disagree with the infant. The stomach and bowels are thus
deranged, and medicine is resorted to, and again and again the same
thing occurs.

This is wrong, and but too frequently productive of serious and
lasting mischief. Alteration of diet, rather than the exhibition of
medicine, should, under these circumstances, be relied on for remedying
the evil. Calomel, and such like remedies, "the little powders of the
nursery," ought not to be given on every trivial occasion. More
mischie