MARCH 245 



however good and devoted, are uneducated, and there- 

 fore bigoted in their opinions, that it is as well to 

 caution young mothers not to yield to what might 

 seem to them the greater experience of the nurse. I did 

 it myself, having as my nurse one of the best of women, 

 who had brought up several babies. All the same, I 

 think now I was wrong; but in my youth the rules of 

 health were in the dark ages compared to what they are 

 now. To-day every young mother should learn for 

 herself what is the last and the most approved theory as 

 regards food and fresh air. On one subject science and 

 nature go hand in hand, and lead more and more to the 

 belief that the only really right nourishment for a baby 

 is what nature provides. In the 'upper classes' it has 

 become in my life -time rarer and rarer for young 

 mothers to nurse their own children. When I was 

 young the only women who were supposed to be good 

 wet-nurses were the Irish; and why was this ? Because 

 they were poorly fed; they came, too, of generations of 

 poor feeders, and before the days when they could obtain 

 either meat or tea except in very small quantities. In 

 France and Germany the wet-nurses always came from 

 the poor districts, where, as a rule, meat -eating was 

 unknown; and of late years tkese women are more and 

 more difiBcult to procure, though this may, of course, be 

 from many reasons other than nature failing to supply 

 what is required. I believe that if young mothers were 

 greatly to reduce their ordinary food during the time 

 before the birth of their children, they would not only 

 greatly reduce the common suffering which nature has 

 had to resort to, so as to lessen the food taken, but the 

 chances of the baby's health after its birth would be 

 infinitely greater. A large, heavy baby often loses 

 weight after its birth, especially when the mother cannot 

 give it natural nourishment. This should not be ; they 



