NATURAL HISTORY. 87 



pounds. The form of the body and members of a 

 new-born infant are by no means perfect. At the end 

 of three days there generally appears a kind of jaun- 

 dice ; and at that time, there is generally milk in the 

 breast of the infant, which is squeezed out with the 

 fingers. The skull of infants is not completely formed. 

 In the language of the nursery, the head is open in a 

 particular part ; that is, the skull bones have not yet 

 grown far enough to meet. In this opening, a palpi- 

 tation may sometimes be discovered ; and the beating 

 of the arteries may always be felt. Above this open- 

 ing, a species of scurf appears, which is rubbed off 

 with a brush. In this country, infants, as soon as 

 born, are injudiciously and unnaturally laced with ban- 

 dages, which renders them unable to move a single 

 joint. Nations which we call barbarous, act more ra- 

 tionally in this respect. The Siamese, the Indians, 

 the Japanese, the Negroes, the Savages of Canatla, of 

 Virginia, of Brasil, and almost all the inhabitants of 

 South America, lay their infants naked in hanging beds 

 of cotton, or in cradles lined with fur. 



Infants sleep much, but their sleep is often inter- 

 rupted. They ought to have the breast every two 

 hours in the day, and in the night as often as 

 they awake. It is of great importance to keep 

 children clean and dry from their excrements. The 

 American Indians, who cannot change their furs as 

 frequently as we can do our clothes, put under them 

 the dust of rotten wood, and renew it as often as it 

 gets damp. Great evils ensue from the negligence of 

 nurses. Infants are sometimes left to cry for a con- 

 siderable time, which often occasions diseases, or, at 

 least, throws them into a state of lassitude, which de- 

 ranges their constitutions. To palliate this they are 



