child for a month,
while the mother was unable to nurse it on account of sore nipples. The
little girl was shown to the Royal Academy of Surgery on the 16th of
February, 1783. The quantity of milk was such, that by simply pressing
the breast it was made to flow out in the presence of the Academy, and
on the same day, at the house of Baudelocque, before a large class of
pupils. Again, an interesting case is known of a young woman, who, in
consequence of the habit of applying the infant of her mistress to her
breast in order to quiet it, caused a free secretion of milk. In the
Cape de Verde Islands, it is stated that virgins, old women, and even
men, are frequently employed as wet-nurses. Humboldt speaks of a man,
thirty-two years old, who gave the breast to his child for five months.
Captain Franklin saw a similar case in the Arctic regions. Professor
Hall presented to his class in Baltimore a negro, fifty-five years old,
who had been the wet-nurse of all the children of his mistress.

Instances of powers of _prolonged nursing_ in mothers are not uncommon.
Indeed it is the habit among some nations to suckle children until they
are three or four years of age, even though another pregnancy may
intervene, so that immediately one child is succeeded at the breast by
another. In those who have thus unnaturally excited the mammary glands,
an irrepressible flow sometimes continues after the demand for it has
ceased. Dr. Green published, some years ago, in the _New York Journal of
Medicine and Surgery_, the case of a woman, aged forty-seven, the
mother of five children, who had had an abundant supply of milk for
_twenty-seven years_ consecutively. A period of exactly four years and a
half occurred between each birth, and the children were permitted to
take the breast until they were running about at play. At the time when
Dr. G. wrote, she had been nine years a widow, and was obliged to have
her breasts drawn daily, the secretion of milk being so copious. When,
therefore, it is desirable, on account of the feebleness of the child,
to protract the period of nursing, a wet-nurse should relieve the mother
at the end of twelve or fifteen months.

RULES FOR CARE OF HEALTH WHILE NURSING.

From what we have previously said of the influence of the nervous system
over the quantity and quality of the milk, and the instances we have
adduced of the danger to the infant of all violent passions--such as
anger, terror, anxiety, and grief--o