GROWTH AFTER BIRTH. 299 



casein, butter, sugar of milk, and a small quantity of salts. 

 As compared with, the milk of the cow, that of the human 

 species has a smaller proportion of solid matter, and the 

 solid matter contains a third less of casein, twice as much 

 sugar, and not half the quantity of salts ; and on that account, 

 in feeding infants with cows' milk, it is customary to mix it 

 with sugar and water. 



The first milk which is secreted after parturition exercises 

 a purgative influence on the infant, and is termed colostrum; 

 it is characterised by the presence of corpuscles consisting of 

 heaps of granules gathered together into balls. After pro- 

 longed lactation the milk secreted becomes poor in quality, 

 and the continuance of suckling becomes hurtful, both to the 

 mother and to the child; suckling for an inordinate length 

 of time is, therefore, to be avoided. The best food, however, 

 for the new born infant is the mother's milk; and no more 

 disgraceful custom can well be imagined than a healthy 

 mother neglecting the duty of suckling, unless it be that of 

 medical practitioners encouraging such an impropriety. 



219. Growth after Birth. The proportions of the body of 

 the new born infant are very different from those of the 

 adult. The umbilicus is about the middle, the lower limbs 

 and the chest are small, and the head, as compared with 

 the rest of the body, is much larger than afterwards. In 

 representing the adult figure, the rule recognised in art is to 

 allow eight timos the perpendicular length of the head for 

 the height of the whole body, thus : from the crown to the 

 chin, from the chin to the level of the nipples, from that 

 level to the navel, and from the navel to the pubis, each one 

 head ; and from the pubis to the lower part of the knee, and 

 thence to the sole, each two heads. The position of the 

 umbilicus is, as will be perceived from this, considerably 

 higher in the adult than the child. 



The pelvis in the child is remarkably small, and is so 

 situated at birth that the sacrum lies pretty nearly in a 

 continuation of the line of the vertebral column; but when 

 the child begins to walk, the stretching out of the thighs is 

 effected much more by bending the sacrum back than by 

 movement at the hip joints, and the brim of the true pelvis 

 is thrown into a nearly vertical plane; whereas in the adult 



