It is thought that asses milk has the nearest analogy to that of the female breast; but, if I may be allowed to say it, this assertion is rather matter of opinion than of experience. It is the most serous, and, from that very quality, the most laxative. It is a most pernicious error the imagining it the most strengthening. Daily observations demonstrate the contrary, and prove not only that it is not the most efficacious, but that it is, perhaps, the least so. I have rarely seen any good effects from it; sometimes I have seen bad ones, and am not the only one that has seen them. M. DE HALLER, writing to me, says, “It appears to me, that this same asses milk rarely does what it is desired to do.” Now, the inutility of a pretended remedy, in disorders where the hopes of a cure are founded on it, is one of the most grievous defects. M. HOFFMAN advised it in cases where there were at once an exhaustion and a desire[108]. Before I quit this subject of Aliments, I ought to conclude with the counsel of HORACE, to avoid mixtures. ——_nam variæ res_ _Ut noceant homini credas, memor illius escæ_ _Quæ simplex olim sederit, at, simul assis_ _Miscueris elixa: simul conchylia turdis;_ _Dulcia se in bilem vertent; stomachoque tumultum_ _Lenta feret pituita._ To sense it is obvious enough, without any need to insist on this advice, how impossible it is for very different aliments to undergo, within the same time, a perfect digestion: this mixture it is which is one of the causes that ruin the healthiest constitutions, and is mortal to weak ones: it cannot be too carefully avoided. Another attention equally necessary, and almost equally neglected, is, a thorough mastication. This is a help to digestion, of which even the most vigorous stomachs cannot be long deprived, without a notable decline or diminution; and without which the digestion in weak ones is extremely imperfect. Nothing but a long and attentive observation could satisfy one of the infinite importance to health of a careful mastication. I have seen the most stubborn diseases of the stomach, and the most inveterate languors, dissipated singly by this attention. On the other hand, I have seen persons in good health fall into infirmities, when their teeth, being damaged, no longer suffered them to employ any but an imperfect mastication; nor recovered they their health, till, after a total loss of their teeth, their gums acquired such a hardness as to enable them to supply their function. So many particulars, so many precautions, so many self-denying privations, will seem very fit to verify this line of M. PROCOPE, _Vivre selon nos loix c’est vivre miserable._ _By physic’s laws to live ’s a wretched life._