, so far very intelligent and
attractive. The child took the breast only once in a journey of twenty
miles, but before arriving at destination she vomited several times,
with no interruption but that of stupor, and after an acute fever the
little girl settled down into the condition of a cripple and idiot.'

The celebrated physician Boerhaave mentions the milk of an angry nurse
as among the causes of _epilepsy._

These facts show the importance of a placid mind and cheerful temper in
the mother while nursing.

POSITION OF THE MOTHER WHILE NURSING.

The habit of nursing a child while sitting up in bed or half reclining
upon a lounge is a wrong one. Such a position is injurious to the
breasts, hurtful to the woman's figure, and apt to cause backache. When
in bed, the mother ought always to be recumbent while the child is at
the breast, held upon the arm of the side upon which she lies. When out
of bed, she should sit upright while nursing.

QUANTITY OF MILK REQUIRED BY THE INFANT.

The amount of milk furnished every day by a healthy woman has been
estimated at from a quart to three pints. An infant one or two months of
age takes about two wine-glassfuls, or three ounces, every meal; that
is, as it sucks every two hours, excepting when asleep, about five
half-pints during the twenty-four hours. When it attains the age of
three months, it thrives well on five meals a day, the quantity taken at
each meal then, the stomach being more capacious, amounting to about
half a pint. A child above three months of age ordinarily requires three
pints daily.

A healthy mother is fully capable of furnishing this quantity of milk
per day, and of affording the child all the nourishment it needs until
four or six months after birth.

The quantity of the mother's milk varies according to many
circumstances. It is most abundant and also most nutritious in nursing
women between the ages of fifteen and thirty; least so, in those from
thirty-five to forty. There is likewise a great difference in different
women in this respect; and in the same woman varying conditions of
health influence the amount of milk secreted.

THE QUALITIES OF A GOOD NURSING MOTHER

are well described by Professor J. Lewis Smith. 'The best wet-nurses are
usually robust, without being corpulent. Their appetite is good, and
their breasts are distended, from the number and large size of the
blood-vessels and milk-ducts. There is but a moderate amount of fat