442 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



pie in consequence of the suction, 

 which caused the flow of the milk. 

 This confirms the observation of 

 the ancients, " that men, who 

 have a small quantity of milk, 

 yield it in abundance, when their 

 breasts are sucked."* These 

 singular effects of a nervous 

 stimulant were known to the 

 shepherds of Greece; those of 

 Mount Oeta rubbed the dugs of 

 the young goats, that had not 

 yet conceived, with nettles, to 

 make them produce milk. 



When we reflect on the whole 

 of the vital phenomena, we find, 

 that no one of them is entirely 

 isolated. In every age examples 

 are cited of young girls not 

 marriageable, or women withered 

 by age, who have suckled chil- 

 dren. Among men these exam- 

 ples are infinitely more rare; and 

 after numerous researches, iTiave 

 not found above two or three. 

 One is cited by the anatomist of 

 Verona, Alexander Benedictus, 

 who lived toward the end of the 

 fifteenth century. He relates the 

 history of an inhabitant of Syria,t 

 who, to calm the uneasiness 'of 

 his child, after the death of the 

 mother, pressed it to his bosom. 

 The milk immediately came with 

 such abundance, that the father 



* Arist. Hist. Anim. lib. 3, cap. 

 20, ed. Duval, 1639, Tom. 2, p. 259. 



f Maripetrus sacri ordinis eques- 

 tris tradidit, Syrum quemdam, cui 

 filius infans, mortua conjuge, supe- 

 rerat, ubera saspius admovisse, ut 

 famem filii ragientis frustraret, con- 

 tiniiatoque suctu iacte manasse pa- 

 pillam; quo exinde nutritus est,' 

 raagno totius urbis miraculo. Alex. 

 Benedict! hum. Corp, Anatome, Bas. 

 1549, lib. 3, cap. 4, p. 595. Barlhol. 

 Vindic. Aualom. 1648, p. 32. 



could take on himself the nourish- 

 ment of his child, without as- 

 sistance. Other examples are 

 related by Santorellus, Paria, and 

 Robert, bishop of Cork.* The 

 greater part of these phenomena 

 having been noticed in times very 

 remote, it is not uninteresting to 

 physiology, that we can confirm 

 them in our own days. Besides, 

 they bear very strongly on the 

 long disputed question respecting 

 final causes. The existence of 

 the nipple in men has long puzzled 

 philosophers ; and it has even 

 been recently affirmed, " that 

 nature has refused to one of the 

 sexes the faculty of suckling, 

 because this faculty would not 

 accord with the dignity of 

 man.'' f 



Our host had visited the new 

 world with an expedition, which 

 was to form establishments for 

 cutting wood for the Spanish navy 

 on the shores of the gulf of Paria. 

 In these vast forests of mahogany, 

 cedar, and brasil-wood, which 

 border the sea of the West Indies, 

 they reckoned on choosing the 

 trunks of the largest trees, giving 

 them in a rough way the shape 

 adapted to the building of ships, 

 and sending them every year to 

 the dock-yard of the Caraccas, 

 near Cadiz. White men, unac- 

 customed to the climate, could 

 not support the fatigue of labour, 

 the heat, and the effect of the 

 noxious air exhaled by the forests. 

 The same winds that are loaded 

 with the perfume of flowers, 



* Gabr. Rzaczynski, Hist, natur. 

 Cur. Sandomir. 1721, p. 332, Misc. 

 Acad. Nat. Cur. 1688, p. 219. Phil. 

 Trans. 1741, p. 810. 



t Comment. Petrop. Tom. 3, p. 

 277. 



leaves, 



