And I say again, that however deserving of censure the wealthy of a
Christian community may be in not directing the ignorant and vicious
into the right path, and in not expending more of their wealth on those
who are poor, in elevating their minds and their manners, and promoting
their health, still the latter are inexcusable for their present neglect
of their infant offspring, while they would not think of neglecting, on
the same principle, the offspring of their domestic animals.

CHAPTER VII.

FOOD.

SEC. 1. General principles.--SEC. 2. Conduct of the mother.--SEC. 3.
Nursing--rules in regard to it.--SEC. 4. Quantity of food. Errors.
Over-feeding. Gluttony.--SEC. 5. How long should milk be the child's
only food?--SEC. 6 Feeding before teething. Cow's milk. Sucking bottles.
Cleanliness. Nurses.--SEC. 7. Treatment from teething to weaning.--SEC.
8. Process of weaning-rules in regard to it.--SEC. 9. First food to be
used after weaning. Importance of good bread. Other kinds of food.--SEC.
10. Remarks on fruit.--SEC. 11. Evils and dangers of confectionary.--SEC.
12. Mischiefs of pastry.--SEC. 13. Crude and raw substances.

SEC. 1. _General Principles._

The mother's milk, in suitable quantity, and under suitable regulations,
is so obviously the appropriate food of an infant during the first
months of its existence, that it seems almost unnecessary to repeat the
fact. And yet the violations of this rule are so numerous and constant,
as to require a few passing remarks.

There are some mothers who seem to have a perfect hatred of children;
and if they can find any plausible apology for neglecting to nurse them,
they will. Few, indeed, will publicly acknowledge a state of feeling so
unnatural; but there are some even of such. On the latter, all argument
would, I fear, be utterly lost. Of the former, there may, be hope.

They tell us--and they are often sustained by those around them--that it
is very inconvenient to be so confined to a child that they cannot leave
home for a little while. Can it be their duty--for in these days, when
virtue and religion, and everything good, are so highly complimented, no
people are more ready to talk of _duty_ than they who have the least
regard to it--can it be their duty, they ask, to exclude themselves from
the pleasures and comforts of social life for half or two thirds of
their most active and happy years? Ought they not to go abroad, at least
occasionally? But if so, an