ese reasons, as well as the others
detailed in our directions for the care of the new-born infant, the
child should always, in say from two to three hours after labor, be
placed at the breast.

_Ulcerated and fissured nipples_ should be treated by the doctor in
attendance. As it is highly desirable, and nearly always possible, to
avoid them, we would again call attention to the manner of doing so,
indicated in a previous article. Fissured nipples sometimes do harm to
the infant, by causing it to swallow blood, disturbing in this way the
digestion. But all these local interferences with nursing can generally
be obviated in the course of a few weeks, and rarely entirely prevent
the exercise of this maternal pleasure and duty.

But there are certain _physical conditions which necessitate the
employment of a hired wet-nurse_, or weaning. If the mother belongs to a
consumptive family, and is herself pale, emaciated, harassed by a cough,
and exhausted by suckling, wet-nursing is eminently improper. A
temporary loss of strength under other circumstances should not induce a
mother at once to wean her child; for it is often possible, by the
judicious use of tonics, nourishing food, and stimulants, to entirely
restore the health with the child at the breast. It should always be
recollected, however, that the milk of those in decidedly infirm health
is incapable of properly nourishing the child. Professor J. Lewis Smith
of New York quotes, in his recent work on Diseases of Children, several
instructive cases which show the danger sometimes attending suckling,
and which may imperatively demand its discontinuance. 'A very
light-complexioned young mother, in very good health, and of a good
constitution, though somewhat delicate, was nursing for the third time,
and, as regarded the child, successfully. All at once this young woman
experienced a feeling of exhaustion. Her skin became constantly hot;
there were cough, oppression, night-sweats; her strength visibly
declined, and in less than a fortnight she presented the ordinary
symptoms of consumption. The nursing was immediately abandoned, and from
the moment the secretion of milk had ceased, all the troubles
disappeared.' Again: 'A woman of forty years of age having lost, one
after another, several children, all of which she had put out to nurse,
determined to nurse the last one herself. This woman being vigorous and
well built, was eager for the work, and, filled with devotion and