Sec.379. The Stomach and Guts of the Infant, at its Entrance into the World, are filled with a black Sort of Matter, of a middling Consistence, and very viscid or glutinous, which is called the _Meconium_. It is necessary this Matter should be discharged before the Infant sucks, since it would otherwise corrupt the Milk, and, becoming extremely sharp itself, there would result from their Mixture a double Source of Evils, to the Destruction of the Infant. The Evacuation of this Excrement is procured, 1, By giving them no Milk at all for the first twenty-four Hours of their Lives. 2, By making them drink during that Time some Water, to which a little Sugar or Honey must be added, which will dilute this _Meconium_, and promote the Discharge of it by Stool, and sometimes by vomiting. To be the more certain of expelling all this Matter, they should take one Ounce of Compound Syrup [85] of Succory, which should be diluted with a little Water, drinking up this Quantity within the Space of four or five Hours. This Practice is a very beneficial one, and it is to be wished it were to become general. This Syrup is greatly preferable to all others, given in such Cases, and especially to Oil of Almonds. [85] This Method (says the Editor and Annotator of _Lyons_) is useful, whenever the Mother does not suckle her Child. Art is then obliged to prove a Kind of Substitute to Nature, though always a very imperfect one. But when a Mother, attentive to her own true Interest, as well as her Infant's, and, listening to the Voice of Nature and her Duty, suckles it herself, these Remedies [he adds] seem hurtful, or at least, useless. The Mother should give her Child the Breast as soon as she can. The first Milk, the _Colostrum_, or _Strippings_, as it is called in Quadrupeds, which is very serous or watery, will be serviceable as a Purgative; it will forward the Expulsion of the _Meconium_, prove gradually nourishing, and is better than Biscuits, or Panada, which (he thinks) are dangerous in the first Days after the Birth. _E. L._