of the largest experience for having visibly
saved the lives of many wasting children, it deserves a trial in all
cases in which the ordinary kinds of food disagree.

On page 276 are recorded the directions given by Dr. J. Forsyth Meigs
for an article of diet, consisting of gelatine and arrowroot, which he
prefers to all other kinds of artificial infant food. Another method of
preparing a useful arrowroot mixture is as follows:--

Place a tea-spoonful of arrowroot in a porcelain vessel, with as much
cold water as will make it into a fine dough; then add a cupful of
boiling milk or of beef-tea; stir the mixture a little, and allow it to
boil for a few minutes until the whole acquires the consistency of a
fine light jelly.

The _manner_ in which nutriment is administered to infants is not
immaterial. The custom of feeding them from a small spoon, or from a cup
with a snout, is objectionable. The use of a sucking-bottle most nearly
imitates the way in which nature designed the nursling to obtain its
nourishment. By the act of sucking, the muscles of the face are
exercised in an equal manner, and the saliva is mixed with the food to
an extent which is not possible if any other mode of feeding be resorted
to. Children drink very readily out of the perforated rubber nipples,
which are now so popular for this purpose: they are made to fit over the
mouth of the bottle, and are especially to be recommended on account of
their cleanliness. The bottle should never be refilled until both it and
the rubber cap have been thoroughly cleansed in warm water. A white
glass bottle only should be employed in order that any want of
cleanliness may readily be detected. It should be recollected that milk
very quickly sours when kept in this way in a warm room; it is therefore
better always to empty the bottle and fill it afresh each time it is
given to the child, rather than to wait until its contents are exhausted
before replenishing it.

We have hitherto been treating mainly of the diet proper for the first
year of life. In the second year children may be permitted to have soft,
finely-cut meat. Fresh ripe fruit in season ordinarily agrees
excellently well. But boiled green vegetables and husk fruits are very
apt to cause indigestion and diarrhoea. Fruit for children should be
freed from the stones and skins; which latter are indigestible, and
often do harm.

As an example of a diet suitable for a child two years of age we append
the