Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1811 edition. Excerpt: ... should unquestionably be immediately indulged, if the mother's milk begins to flow into the breast; and should it be slow in its progress, the natural industry of the infant will speedily supply the deficiency. The first milk it can draw is the best medicine in the world to cleanse its little stomach and bowels of the matter acquired in the womb; and at the same time contributes to the safety of the mother, by preventing milk fevers, inflammations, and other complaints incident to women in childbed." It is true it will not at first obtain much j but it will ordinarily get enough to support it until the milk comes, which (as observed by the judicious author just quoted) will be very soon, when thus gently invited by the sweetest call of nature. It is well known tfiat when a child is not put to the breast until the milk is fully come; which in that case is seldom until the third or fourth day, it must be fed: this unnatural food clogs the first passages, occasions acidities, wind, and their unual distressing consequences; recourse is then had to oils, syrups, and even spirituous liquors, which greatly increase the irritation. In this state the poor little babe is at length permitted to suck inordinately from a full breast of milk, while the mother herself is feverish and ill from the sudden change her system has undergone: the fatal effects may be easily imagined; and who can wonder if children so managed are frequently seized with convulsions, and die within a few days. Therefore let me entreat you to take your infants to your bosom immediately, and leave Nature to do her own work, in which, as it respects so material a point as providing food for her offspring, it is almost presumptuous to think her deficient. It will sometimes happen, ...
