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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Ass's Milk Nursery at the Hospital for Assisted Children, Paris. 



of the preliminary difficulties in personal 

 instruction and the insufficient number of 

 animals at the disposal of the hospital, the 

 rate of mortality has been greatly reduced. 

 The infants were at first fed with goat's 

 milk, but it was soon found that ass's milk 

 was better for them ; and they are now all 

 fed with milk which they draw directly from 

 the teat of the animal. One, two, and some- 

 times three children are presented to the ass 

 at the same time, being held at the teat in 

 the arms of the nurse, and the operation is 

 performed with wonderful ease. Numbers 

 speak most eloquently of the success of the 

 method. During six months, eighty-six 

 children afflicted with congenital and con- 

 tagious diseases were fed at the nursery. 

 The first six were fed, by stress of par- 

 ticular circumstances, with cow's milk from 

 the bottle ; only one of them recovered. 

 Forty-two were nursed at the teat of the 

 goat ; eight recovered, thirty-four died. 

 Thirty-eight were nursed at the teat of the 

 ass ; twenty-eight recovered, ten died. In 

 the face of such results there can be hardly 

 any hesitation in declaring that in hospitals, 



at least, the best method of feeding new- 

 born children, who can not, for any rea- 

 son, be confided to a nurse, is to put them 

 to suck directly from the teat of an ass. 

 The virtues of ass's milk have not waited 

 for recognition till this late day. Paris and 

 other large cities have, for many years, en- 

 joyed the visits of troops of asses which 

 have been brought in to supply the restora- 

 tive liquid to the sick and feeble. If we 

 may credit the legend, the use of this milk 

 was introduced into France during the reign 

 of Francis I. That brave monarch had 

 fallen into a state of extreme exhaustion, in 

 consequence of his over-exertion in military 

 and other exercises. His physicians not 

 being able to produce any change in his con- 

 dition, a Jew was brought from Constanti- 

 nople, who prescribed simply a beverage of 

 ass's milk ; he took it, according to the 

 chronicle, and became better. Ass's milk 

 owes the advantages which it possesses over 

 that of goats to its chemical composition, 

 the distinguishing feature of which is that 

 it contains less plastic substance and butter 

 than goat's milk. Like mother's milk, it 



