ANIMALS. 303 



Infants, when newly born, pass most of their time in sleeping, 

 end 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 voracious : but the infant may be 

 considered as a little glutton, whose only pleasure consists in it« 

 appetite ; and this, except when it sleeps, it is never easy with- 

 out satisfying. Thus nature has adapted different desires to the 

 different periods of life ; each as it seems most necessary for 

 human support or succession. While the animal is yet forming, 

 hunger excites it to that supply which is necessary for its growth ; 

 when it is completely formed, a different appetite takes place, 

 that incites it to communicate existence. These two desires 

 take up the whole attention of different periods, but are very 

 seldom found to prevail strongly together in the same age ; one 

 pleasure ever serving to repress the other : and, if we find a 

 person of full age placing a principal part of his happiness in the 

 nature and quantity of his food, we have strong reasons to sus- 

 pect, that with respect to his other appetites he still retains a 

 part of the imbecility of his childhood. 



It is extraordinary, however, that infants, who are thus more 

 voracious than grown persons, are nevertheless more capable of 

 sustaining hunger. We have several instances, in accidental 

 cases of famine, in which the child has been known to survive 

 the parent, and seen clinging to the breast of its dead mother. 

 Their little bodies also are more patient of cold ; and we have 

 similar instances of the mother's perishing in the snow, while 

 the infant has been found alive beside her. However, if we ex- 

 amine the internal structure of infants, we shall find an obvious 

 reason for both these advantages. Their blood-vessels are known 

 to be much larger than in adults ; and their nerves much thicker 

 and softer : thus being furnished with a more copious quantity 

 of juices, both of the nervous and sanguinary kinds, the infant 

 finds a temporary sustenance in this superfluity, and does not ex- 

 pire till both are exhausted. The circulation also being larger 

 and quicker, supplies it with proportionable warmth, so that it is 

 more capable of resisting the accidental rigours of the weather. 



The first nourishment of infants is well known to be the mo- 

 ther's milk; and what is remarkable, the infant has milk in its" 

 own breasts, which may be squeezed out by compression ; this 



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