OF NATURAL HISTORY. 2.07 



year, are not permitted to tafte any other food. The Cana- 

 dian ravages nurfe their children four or live years, and 

 fometlmes fix or feven. In cafes of neceffity, the mjlk of 

 quadrupeds may fupply that of the mother. But, in fuch 

 cafes, the child fliould be obh ged to fiick the animal's teat ; 

 for the degree of heat is always uniform and proper, and the 

 milk, by the a(Stion of the mufcles, is mixed with the fallva, 

 which is a great promoter of digeftion. Several robuil peaf- 

 ants have been known to have had no other nurfes than ewes. 

 After two or three months, children may be gradually accuf- 

 tomed to food fomewhat more folld than milk. Before the 

 teeth (lioot through the gums, Infants are incapable of maftl- 

 cation. During that period, therefore^ it is obvious that Na- 

 ture intended they fliould be nourifhed folely by fofc fub- 

 {lances. But, after tliey are furniOied with teeth, It is equal • 

 ly obvious, that they ihould occafionally be allowed food of 

 Z more folid texture. 



The bodies of infants, though extremely delicate, are lefs 

 affected by cold than at any other period of life. This eltc(fl 

 may be produced by the fuperior quicknefs In the pulfation 

 of the heart and arteries which takes place in fmall animals. 

 The pulfe of an infant is more frequent than that of an 

 adult. The pulfe of a horfe, or of an ox, Is .much flower 

 than that of a man ; and the motion of the heart, in very 

 fmall animals, as that of a linnet, is fo rapid that it Is impof- 

 iible to count the ftrokes. 



The lives of children, during the firO: three or four years, 

 are extremely precarious. After that period, their exigence 

 becomes gradually more certain. According to SImpfon's 

 tables of the degrees of mortality at diiferent ages, it ap- 

 pears, that, of a certain number of infants brought forth at 

 the fame time, more than a fourth part of them died in the 

 nrft year, more than a third In two years, and at leaft one 

 lialf at the end of the third year. Mr. Simpfon made this 



