BOOK II. CHAP. XIII. 277 



thefe nurfes who is not a common proftitute, or at leafl: who has not 

 commerce with more than one man ; or who has not Tome latent 

 taint of the venereal diftemper, or fcrofa, either hereditary, or ac- 

 quired, and ill-cured. The place of a nurfe is anxioofly coveted 

 by all of them, as it is ufually produ<flive of various emoluments 

 to them ; and on this account they are fure to keep lecret any ail- 

 ment they labour under, however detrimental to the child, rather 

 than be turned off. The mothers in England are at leaft able to 

 find fome healthy labourer's wife ; and none of them, I venture to 

 believe, would fend their infants to befuckledin any of the brothels 

 of London. It is true, the Creole ladles have not the fame ad- 

 vantage; they can meet with none other than unchafte nurfes; 

 and this is another unanfwerable argument to prove the necefTity 

 of their adminiflering their own breaft, in preference to one that 

 they are under fo many reafons to fufpeft is not equally proper. 



Numberlefs have been the poor little vidims to this pernicious 

 cuftom. Many innocents have thus been murdered; and many 

 more have fucked in difeafes, which rendered their life miferable, 

 or fuddenly cut (hort the thread of it. 



A misfortune attending mioft of thefe children is, that they are 

 extremely fubje^t to worm-diforders imbibed with the milk; for I 

 have frequently icen thefe vermin difcharged from babes of three 

 months age. But it is more ufual to fee them looking healthy and 

 well till they reach the tiiird year ; when they frequently decline 

 all at once, and from this caufe. They are often too much 

 crammed with the fruits and roots of the country, which at this 

 tender age are apt to generate a large quantity of vifcid (lime in 

 their bowels, that affords a w/^wj for the worms to depofite their 

 eggs. The more common kinds which infefl them are the afca' 

 rides, and tania or tape worm : both thefe forts are eftedually ex- 

 pelled with a deco6lion of the anthelmenthia, or worm-grafs, which 

 grows naturally in the South parts of Jamaica; and fometimes the 

 oleum ricini, or nut oil, is adminiftered in fmall and frequent dofes 

 with fuccefs. 



The down of the cow-itch pods, given in the proportion of one 

 part to three parts of honey or fyrup, to the quantity of one tea- 

 fpoonful morning and evening, for a week, has been found, by 



repeated 



