800 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



and especially take but little vinegar or acid 

 fruits, as these both diminish the amount of 

 milk and render what there is less nutritious. 

 The nursing mother may with great ad vantage 

 make free use of milk itself, as it furnishes, 

 ready formed, the substances she is required to 

 impart. Should there be tendency to acidity, 

 it may be corrected by mixing the milk with 

 a mild alkali, such as one fourth or one fifth 

 of its bulk of soda water. It becomes often 

 necessary that children should be surrendered 

 to wet nurses. As the composition and con- 

 sequent physiological effects of milk gradually 

 change in the successive months after the 

 child's birth, it is important that the ages of 

 the children, both of the mother and wet- 

 nurse, should be as nearly as possible the same. 

 That nature, temper, and character are com- 

 municated by her milk, from the mother to 

 the nursing child, is not an idle prejudice. 

 Not only do bodily circumstances of health 

 affect the lactic secretion, but conditions of 

 the mind and passions also. A paroxysm of 

 anger may pervert and even poison the foun- 

 tain of life ; ' ' and there is no thought more 

 natural than that on the breast of its mother 

 the infant may imbibe together with its milk, 

 her nobleness of mind." When the exigency 

 occurs, therefore, the selection of wet nurses 

 is a matter of much importance. If they have 

 been accustomed to plain, substantial diet, it 

 is highly unwise to pamper them with deli- 

 cacies, as is sometimes done in affluent fami- 

 lies, indigestion and bad bodily conditions 

 being very liable to ensue. As respects the 

 use of spirits under these circumstances, Dr. 

 Chambers, himself no advocate of abstinence, 

 has the following remarks: " Nursing women 

 are desired to drink an unusual quantity of 

 porter, wine, bitters, and what not, till they 

 get bloated, thick-complexioned, stupid, and 

 dyspeptic. The reason of this is, that alcohol 

 and other ingredients, in such a diet, arrest 

 metamorphosis, detain in the system the se- 

 cretions we want to flow out, and fill those 

 which do flow out, with effete matter. If the 

 constitution of the mother is robust enough to 

 stand this bad usage, and still afford the due 

 quantum of milk for her child, yet that must 

 Ui of inferior quality to what she otherwise 

 would have made, and the innocent consumer 

 suffers." The milk of the cow differs so con- 

 siderably from that of the mother, that it 

 should be corrected if it is to be given to the 

 infant. This is done by adding a third or a 

 fourth of water, and about one twenty-fifth its 

 weight of refined sugar ; it should be warmed 

 to the temperature of the body, 98. To this, 

 solid substances may be gradually added, as 

 wheate.i bread or boiled farina, but not arrow- 



root, tapioca, sago, or rice, upon which many 

 children are fed to death. These are not com- 

 plete nutriments and are incapable of promoting 

 the growth of either bones or flesh. Even 

 after weaning, soft mixtures of good bread 

 with milk and sugar, or with the juices of 

 meat ; also the more readily digestible roots 

 and vegetables, together with soups prepared 

 from the meat of young animals, may be con- 

 sidered the best food. After the teeth are cut, 

 meat and bread in their simple form may also 

 be given. Aliments difficult of digestion, fat 

 meat, heavy bread, rich pastry, unripe fruit, 

 leguminous seeds, and heating condiments are 

 carefully to be avoided for children. 



DIET OF CHILDHOOD AND 

 YOUTH. 



Besides the maintenance of activity, the diet 

 of this period must be such as to harden, 

 strengthen, and expand the system. The mus- 

 cles increase in fibrin and firmness, tissues are 

 develope'd and strengthened, and the gelatinous 

 model of the bones is solidified and enlarged 

 into a strong skeleton by the gradual deposit 

 of bone-earth. With these changes there is 

 also a slowly augmenting activity of bodily 

 transformation, the excretion of carbonic acid 

 by the lungs, and of urea by the kidneys, in- 

 creasing in amount up to the twenty-fifth or 

 thirtieth year. The demand for food is, there- 

 fore, more peremptory during the growing 

 time of youth than at any portion of subse- 

 quent life. As regards the indulgence of the 

 appetite at this period, perhaps there is no bet- 

 ter guide than the indications of nature. So 

 children have plain food, if healthy and active, 

 they will hardly eat sufficient to injure them- 

 selves. It is not right to subject the young to 

 a regimen adjusted to the adult ; they require 

 more nutritious food, and to satisfy the appe- 

 tite oftener. Something to eat in mid-fore- 

 noon and mid-afternoon will often be necessary, 

 but the thing should be done strictly upon 

 system, as the habit of eating irregularly, at 

 every capricious call of appetite, is wrong and 

 injurious. Yet, though the diet of youth 

 should be nutritive and strength-imparting, it 

 is of the first necessity that it should be plain 

 and unexciting. Luxurious, stimulating food, 

 charged with condiments and nerve-provoca- 

 tives, gives rise to a morbid precocity of in- 

 stincts, thoughts, and actions, and helps to 

 explain the unhealthy prematurity and slender 

 figures and pale faces of boys and girls brought 

 up in towns. 



DIET OF MIDDLE LIFE. 



When maturity has been reached, there 

 comes a period, varying in duration, but ex- 



