344 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
is a mild cathartic, and alfo operates as a diaphoretic ; and the 
natives attribute to it luperior virtue as an antidote agaiaft cer- 
tain poifons. 
LaEiation. 
Savary remarks, that in Egypt each mother afFords nouri{h- 
ment to her own infant, even in compHance with a command 
of the Prophet, and that this prevents many difeafes. No doubt 
can exift that the milk of the mother, long fecreted and re- 
ferved for the child, is the proper nourifliment at the birtli, and 
by its acrid quality tends to facilitate the evacuation of the 
fxces, accumulated during the period of geftation, much better 
than any thing that can be fubftituted in its room. But when 
this effed is once produced, in many cafes the milk of any other 
woman may be better than that of the mother ; nay, that of the 
mother may be infalubrious a princ'ipio ; and it is as yet far from 
being proved, that the milk of the mother is in all cafes the beft 
polfible milk for the child. 
If the mother abftain not from the male embrace, and be^ 
come gravid, the milk becomes, as is well known, poifon to the 
offspring. — The Arabic language has even a fmgle word to 
exprefs, qui£ laElans confuefc'it v'lro^ which they conceive ex- 
tremely injurious. 
Opium^ 
