ble either to procure a wet-nurse or to take the child to the
country to be weaned. In cold weather an infant should certainly be
weaned, if it has attained its fifth or sixth month, and the mother has
become pregnant.

INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER'S MIND OVER THE NURSING CHILD.

We have spoken, in treating of mothers' marks, of the influence of the
mother's mind upon her unborn offspring. The influence of the maternal
mind does not cease with the birth of the child. The mother continues
during the whole period of nursing powerfully to impress, through her
milk, the babe at her breast. It is well established, that mental
emotions are capable of changing the quantity and quality of the milk,
and of thus rendering it hurtful, and even dangerous, to the infant.

_The secretion of milk may be entirely stopped_ by the action of the
nervous system. Fear, excited on account of the child which is sick or
exposed to accident, will check the flow of milk, which will not return
until the little one is restored in safety to the mother's arms.
Apprehension felt in regard to a drunken husband, has been known to
arrest the supply of this fluid. On the other hand, the secretion is
often augmented, as every mother knows, by the _sight_ of the child,
nay, even by the _thought_ of him, causing a sudden rush of blood to the
breast known to nurses as the _draught_. Indeed a strong desire to
furnish milk, together with the application of the child to the breast,
has been effectual in bringing about its secretion in young girls, old
women, and even men.

Sir Astley Cooper states that 'those passions which are generally
sources of pleasure, and which when moderately indulged are conducive to
health, will, when carried to excess, alter, and even entirely check the
secretion of milk.'

But the fact which it is most important to know is, that _nervous
agitation may so alter the quality of the milk as to make it poisonous_.
A fretful temper, fits of anger, grief, anxiety of mind, fear, and
sudden terror, not only lessen the quantity of the milk, but render it
thin and unhealthful, inducing disturbances of the child's bowels,
diarrhoea, griping, and fever. Intense mental emotion may even so alter
the milk as to cause the death of the child. A physician states, in the
_Lancet_, that, having removed a small tumour from behind the ear of a
mother, all went on well until she fell into a violent passion. The
child being suckled soon afterwards, it die