Ml 



riH.MISTKY. 



[DIET or YOUTH, KTC. 



be preferred to bottle-feeding. It U true th.it, in large 

 towns, healthy wet-nurses are scarce; and (till rarer, 

 bo, U that devoted lore which nourishes a stranger's 

 child M can-fully a* a desirable : for tho effort IK, indeed, 

 which a woman hai to restrain her own 

 ill and inclination to inch a decree, M to prevent imlis- 

 por any bewildering pawion from becom- 



iiurtful to the babe; the easily excitable nature of 

 the woman U ofu-n inlluouoed to the great disadvantage 

 of the child. Out of the manifold inconvenience* arising 

 from these circumstanoeM, mixed food produces a more 

 freciuent unc*Miie*s of body, than where uniformity of 

 food U observed. 



Hence, in many canes of difficulty, bottle-ft-eding will 

 be preferable to the employment of a wet-nurse. By 

 dilutiug cows' milk with one-third of water, and adding 

 to tive-and-twciity parta of milk about one part of sugar, 

 a sufficient similarity with the milk of the mother is 

 obtained. If asses' milk can be got, which is seldom the 

 ease on account of its high price, the dilution of the 

 whole, and the increase of the proportionate amount of 

 sugar, are very simply effected by mixing about two parts 

 of asses' milk, which is remarkable for its abundance of 

 water and sugar, with one part of cows' milk. As the 

 milk in the first days after confinement contains more 

 solid constituents than it does from about the fourth 

 day afterwards, the cows' milk should for the first days 

 be diluted with a smaller proportion of water ; but after 

 the fourth day, more than one-third of water is to be 

 added to good cows' milk a proportion which must gra- 

 dually be diminished again, as the milk of the mother, 

 after baring become considerably thinner on the fourth 

 or fifth day, increases again by degrees in the amount 

 it contains of caseine and salts. Like all liquids of the 

 body, the milk in the mother's breast has a temperature 

 of SW Fah. At this temperature, all aliments are most 

 easily transformed by the digestive fluids. In bottle- 

 feeding, therefore, the mixture employed ought always 

 to be warmed as nearly as possible to 98. 



A long time before the period for weaning arrives, and 

 earlier if the mother have not sufficient milk, more 

 solid food may be gradually given. From rusks, line 

 wheaten flour, potato-starch, or arrowroot, first com- 

 bined with water, milk, and sugar, and afterwards with 

 broth of different kinds, a spoon-meat is prepared, 

 usually much relished by infants. While in rusks and 

 wheaten flour the albuminous substances themselves are 

 present, in the mixture prepared of potato-starch or 

 arrowroot, these are only contained in the milk, or in 

 the juice of meat ; for it is to be taken into consideration 

 that arrowroot differs from potato-starch only in being 

 composed of smaller granules, and by its forming with 

 boiling-water a thinner paste. Arrowroot, in fact, is 

 nothing but starch ; but starch represents only the group 

 of organic alimentary principles destitute of nitrogen; 

 and among these the constituents of fat : now as the 

 constituents of fat alone are not able to maintain life, 

 arrowroot boiled with water only, cannot restore and 

 supply the various essential constituents of the bio,, 1. 

 With a paste of arrowroot and water, children may bo 

 fed to death, but they cannot be nourished ; and many 

 a child has succumbed to this diet, an unhappy victim 

 of the lamentable error that the highly-commended 

 arrowroot was of itself a complete nutriment. 



Even after weaning, soft mixtures of a good bread, 

 with milk and sugar, or with the juices of meat; also, 

 the more readily-digestible roots and vegetables, to- 

 gether with soups prepared from the meat of young 

 animals, may be considered the best food. After the 

 teeth an cut, meat and bread, in their simple form, 

 may air i be given. Aliments difficult of digestion, fat 

 meat, heavy bread, rich pastry, unripe wheaten grains, 

 leguminous seeds, and heating condiments, are carefully 

 to be avoided for children; and of beverages, water, 

 milk, and a light beer only deserve commendation. 



S 85. Met of Youth, Maturity, and Old Age. While 

 the boy is growing into the youth, the composition of 

 his blood and tissues gradually approaches that of the 

 tun body. A* the muscles acquire more fibrine, the 



skin and bones become richer in gelatinous subst.v 

 in the IMHU-* ami t-rth, the lime-salts n pro- 



dominate over the common salt ; and tho whole octn.it y 

 of tin- change of matter is altered. 



As at other times, so dtirin,' this period, the e\ 

 diture of the body furnishes the best mean* of estimating 

 the extent of these changes. The proportion of car- 

 bonic acid excreted by the lungs, and that of urea 

 voided by the kidneys, increases up to maturity, attain- 

 ing its height at about the thirtieth year ; but at about 

 the fortieth year, the activity of the tissue-ch 

 already begins to decrease, and the most important 

 alterations gradually take place, of which those only of 

 the tissues of the bones have been investigated with any 

 degree of accuracy. 



Of the solid parts, it is known in general, that in old 

 age the proportions of water and fat decrease. Hence, 

 UK- tissues of tho eye become drier, and the light is less 

 refracted through the crystalline lens, which becomes 

 poorer in water; hence, also, the shrivelled hands and 

 the wrinkled brow. That the hair is altered iu its 

 material composition is proved by its gray colour, the 

 venerable decoration of old age ; but of the bones, we 

 know that they become more and more brittle, because, 

 in proportion to their organic basis, the quantity of salts 

 astonishingly increases, and it is particularly the phos- 

 pliate of lime which more and more predominates ; for 

 although the salts, on the whole, increase so considerably, 

 the carbonate of lime decreases relatively to the phos- 

 phate of lime; which latter, therefore, in a stricter 

 sense, U so often denominated the bone-earth. 



Nor is the organ of thought without its share in 

 alterations so important. In advanced age, the propor- 

 tionate amount of fat in the brain diminishes ; while, 

 unlike all other organs, its amount of water augments. 



Is it, therefore, to be wondered at, if the excretions 

 undergo essential alterations 1 or, should the tissues, 

 exposed to the same influences as before, although 

 themselves differently composed, yield equal quantities 

 of the same products of decomposition ( We repeat, 

 that in difference only lies the equality of men ; only by 

 the variety of circumstances, affecting both the matter 

 and the force of our organs, can we be different ; we are 

 all equally dependent on air and soil, on men and 

 animals, on plants and minerals; we could not have 

 been primitively all equal, could we maintain equality 

 under the different influences to which we are exposed: 

 it is upon the difference of circumstances that our own 

 differences are based. 



Age is an essential element worthy of notice in this 

 difference. The tissues have now another composition ; 

 in old age, less carbonic acid is breathed out, less urea 

 formed. The drier tissues, containing a greater pro- 

 portion of salts, undergo their normal t.ran.sform.-itious 

 more slowly; the diminished decomposition proves a 

 diminished activity; that renewal of matter, which is 

 so abundantly induced by tho decomposing action of 

 oxygen, is gradually weakened ; a smaller proportion 

 is decomposed, and a still smaller portion form 



Thus the susceptibility to all sensible and mental im- 

 pressions gradually becomes enfeebled : that which for- 

 merly would have made a powerful impression, scarcely 

 now leaves any trace in the form of memory. But a 

 rich life lies behind the old man. Though no 

 less, the crown of a maturer experience adorns him. 

 Kipe fruit which he has collected for himself and others, 

 gladden the last years of his life, and increase the 

 cordial and elevating sense of gratitude, with which we 

 render homage to the vmonUHMM of old age. " In 

 the late evening of a much-agitated life," Alexander 

 von Huinboldt, whose very name illustrates tho idea, 

 lays before the world his Cosmos, "the idea of which, 

 for almost half a century, had been floating in uncertain 

 outlines before his mind ;" ami with it h i ,ii.in.ll"s the 

 spirit of every one, whose view is not narro.ved by those 

 barriers which only too often separate all sublime enthu- 

 siasm regarding the universal, from the arid, and rela- 

 tively sterile, assiduity which stolidly confines itself to 

 mere details. 



