instead of increasing, the secretion of milk. This practice of taking fermented liquors generally commences in the lying-in room. The young mother is there told that it is essential to the production of a plentiful supply of good breast-milk. And from a sense of duty this course is adopted, however disagreeable, as it really is to many, who submit to it. The advice, however well meant, is not good advice, but frequently most mischievous. Malt liquor or wine is only useful to the woman who, possessing a healthy constitution and a system free from disease, is delicate rather than robust, but who, nevertheless, with advantage to herself or without detriment to the child, may suckle. Such an individual may make a trial of wine, or of a pint of good sound ale or porter in the four-and-twenty hours, and if it is found to have a favourable effect upon her health, and not to produce discomfort or disturbance to the system, it should be persevered in. But here, as in the former cases, more good will result from the assiduous employment day by day of general measures than from any stimuli. The bowels must be duly regulated, and if at any time an aperient is required, the selection is not unimportant. If it be desirable to

act at the same time upon the infant's bowels, a saline purgative, as Epsom or Cheltenham salts, should be taken; this, through its effect on the milk, will act on the child; if otherwise, a vegetable aperient should be chosen, as castor oil, confection of senna, or five grains of the compound extract of colocynth, with two grains of the extract of henbane, to prevent its griping.

I need scarcely remind the nursing parent of the importance of attending to the state of the skin, and of the invigorating effects of the tepid or cold salt-water

shower bath, taken every morning upon rising. If the latter cannot be borne, sponging the body with tepid or cold salt water must be substituted. Exercise and fresh air are essential to the production of good and nourishing breast-milk, as they also contribute to increase the quantity secreted. No one can have seen much practice in this metropolis, and not have been fully convinced of this fact. Wet or fine, if the mother be in good health, she should take the daily walk. The injurious influence of an indulgence in late hours, night or morning, and the luxuries and dissipation of high life, will soon become manifest. Such habits not only lessen the mother's attention to her offspring, but really diminish her power of affording it nourishment; so that she is often a worse mother in these respects than the inhabitant of the meanest hovel.

A tranquil temper, and a happy, cheerful disposition, tend greatly to promote the production of healthy milk. Indeed, there is no secretion of the human body that exhibits so quickly the injurious influence of the depressing emotions as that of the breast. And although we are not able at all times to detect by any agent we possess the changes which take place in its physical properties, so delicate an apparatus for testing its qualities is the digestive system of the infant, that it will sometimes instantly show that such changes have occurred, by the serious symptoms which now and then arise. I might cite many instances that I have met with illustrative of this fact. In one case, the child had had repeated fits of convulsions from noon of the previous day; the parent had been suddenly summoned to her mother, attacked with apoplexy; anxious and excited, she gave the child the breast, and within half an hour the convulsions commenced

other breast-milk was suggested and obtained, and the fits ceased; all the previous measures had been unsuccessful. In another instance convulsions occurred evidently from disorder of the breast-milk, but the source of derangement was not discovered until a few weeks after, when it appeared that on the morning of the day when the child was attacked, the mother was made acquainted with the deranged condition of her husband's affairs. Fear has a powerful influence on the secretion; first changing its properties, and then frequently stopping the secretion altogether. I was sent for to an infant between two and three months old in an attack of convulsions, so severe as to threaten a fatal termination. This child I had seen at the same time the day before sucking at the breast of its wetnurse in perfect health, never having had a moment's illness. It had shown the first symptoms of indisposition the previous night after the nurse had retired to rest when, having been at the breast, it became restless, crying frequently, evidently from pain. In the course of the night the bowels were violently purged; towards morning the stomach could not retain the milk; and as the day advanced the general symptoms of uneasiness increased, and in the afternoon the convulsions above referred to came on. Upon inquiry I found the father of the young nurse had called on the previous evening, and not only violently abused his daughter, but had struck the poor girl, he being under the influence of liquor at the time. This interview produced such mental distress in the young woman as to attract the attention of her mistress, when an explanation of the cause ensued. Strict orders were given to forbid the man the house for the future; but the mischief was done; for it was too evident that the

alarming state of the child had been produced by the deleterious change which had taken place in the nurse's milk. Remedial measures were used; the breast-milk withheld; and the infant, although it continued for many days in a doubtful state, eventually recovered; the young woman's milk, however, was altogether driven away, and another wet-nurse was obliged to be obtained without delay.

Perhaps the most remarkable instance on record of the effect of strong mental excitement on the secretion of the breast, is one mentioned by Dr. Von Ammon; so remarkable that the event could hardly be regarded as more than a simple coincidence, if it were not borne out by the less striking but equally decisive facts already mentioned. 'A carpenter fell into a quarrel with a soldier billeted in his house, and was set upon by the latter with his drawn sword. The wife of the carpenter at first trembled with fear and terror, and then suddenly threw herself furiously between the combatants, wrested the sword from the soldier's hand, broke it in pieces, and threw it away. During the tumult, some neighbours came in and separated the men. Whilst in this state of strong excitement the mother took up her child from the cradle where it lay playing, and in the most perfect health, never having had a moment's illness; she gave it the breast, and in so doing sealed its fate. In a few minutes the infant left off sucking, became restless, panted, and sank dead upon its mother's bosom. The physician who was called in found the child lying in the cradle as if asleep, and with its features undisturbed; but all his resources were fruitless. It was irrecoverably gone.' The milk in this striking case must have undergone a change which gave it a powerful sedative action upon the sus

ceptible nervous system of the infant. A fretful temper will lessen the quantity of milk, make it thin and serous, and cause it to disturb the child's bowels, producing fever and griping. Fits of anger produce a very irritating milk, followed by griping in the infant, with green stools. Grief or anxiety of mind often so diminish the secretion as to render other aid necessary for the sustenance of the child. Fear and terror would seem to produce a powerful sedative effect upon the milk, as proved in Von Ammon's case just quoted, and which in a minor degree I have noticed elsewhere. A knowledge of these facts ought to act as a salutary warning to a mother not to indulge in, but carefully to guard against, either the exciting or depressing passions.

The quantity and quality of the breast-milk may be affected by other causes. Sometimes the monthly periods return while the mother still continues a nurse. This occurrence much impairs the milk in its probable duration, and more or less in its properties at the period itself. The infant sometimes becomes unusually fretful, brings up the milk, and has frequent watery motions, more or less of a spinach-green colour. It this take place early after delivery, it will in most cases so alter the qualities of the milk as seriously to affect the health of the child, and oblige the mother to transfer it to a wet-nurse. But if it do not occur until the sixth or seventh month, no inconvenience of importance will generally arise. As a general rule, the breast must be withheld from the child as much as possible during its continuance, and artificial food substituted.

The taste and qualities of the milk are easily affected by diet. If the mode of living be full and