392 HISTORY OF 



tries, that seldom are able to walk under a twelve- 

 month. 



The skin of children newly brought forth is 

 always red, proceeding from its transparency, by 

 which the blood beneath appears more conspi- 

 cuous. Some say that this redness is greatest in 

 those children that are afterwards about to have 

 the finest complexions ; and it appears reasonable 

 that it should be so, since the thinnest skins are 

 always the fairest. The size of a new-born infant 

 is generally about twenty inches, and its weight 

 about twelve pounds. The head is large, and all 

 the members delicate, soft, and puffy. These 

 appearances alter with its age : as it grows older, 

 the head becomes less in proportion to the rest 

 of the body ; the flesh hardens ; the bones that 

 before birth grew very thick in proportion, now 

 lengthen by degrees, and the human figure more 

 and more acquires its due dimensions. In such 

 children, however, as are but feeble or sickly, 

 the head always continues too big for the body ; 

 the heads of dwarfs being extremely large in pro- 

 portion. 



Infants, when newly born, pass most of their 

 time in sleeping, and awake with crying, excited 

 either by sensations of pain or of hunger. Man, 

 when come to maturity, but rarely feels the want 

 of food, as eating twice or thrice in the four-and- 

 twenty hours is known to suffice the most vora- 

 cious : but the infant may be considered as a little 

 glutton, whose only pleasure consists in its appe- 

 tite ; and this, except when it sleeps, it is never 

 easy without satisfying. Thus nature has adapt- 



