ther may in such cases be tempted to bring it up by hand
from the very first. But how short soever the period may be during which
the mother may be able to suckle her child, it is very desirable that
she should nurse it during that period, and also that her milk should
then constitute its only food. For the first four or five days after the
infant's birth the milk possesses peculiar qualities, and not merely
abounds in fatty and saccharine matter, but presents its casein or curd
in a form in which it is specially easy of digestion. These
peculiarities indeed become less marked within a week or two; but not
only is it of moment that the infant should at any rate make its start
in life with every advantage, but the mother who nurses her little one
even for a month avoids thereby almost half the risks which follow her
confinement. For the indolent, among the wealthy, a numerous class who
have but to form a wish in order to have it gratified, a wet-nurse for
the baby suggests itself at once to the mother as a ready means of
saving herself trouble, and of shirking responsibility. This course, to
which love of pleasure and personal vanity tend alike to prompt her,
often finds, in spite of all opposing reasons, the approval of the
nurse, to whom it saves trouble, and the too ready acquiescence of the
doctor in a course which pleases his patient. But many circumstances
besides those moral considerations, which ought never to be forgotten
before the determination is formed to employ a wet-nurse, may put this
expedient out of the question, and it becomes therefore of importance to
learn what is the best course for a mother to adopt who is either wholly
unable to suckle her child, or who can do so only for a very short time.

It is obvious that the more nearly the substitute approaches to the
character of the mother's milk, the greater will be the prospect of the
attempt to rear the child upon it proving successful. There is no
argument needed to prove that the milk of some animal more closely
resembles the mother's milk, and is more likely to prove a useful
substitute for it than any kind of farinaceous substance. The milk of
all animals, however, differs in many important respects from human
milk, and differs too very widely in different animals. Thus, the milk
of the cow and that of the ewe contain nearly double the quantity of
curd, and that of the goat more than twice the quantity of butter, and
it is only in the milk of the a