To avoid the subsequent necessity of giving medicine you must be very careful in their administration at first. It is indeed necessary that the meconium should be purged off at first, but nature in general provides such physic as is required, and if the child is applied to the mother’s breast, it obtains in the colostrum such medicine as it needs. Where the infant cannot obtain anything from the breast a gentle aperient may be given, and I name the following as being suitable: either molasses and water, raw sugar, a solution of manna in warm water, a teaspoonful of sweet oil, or of simple syrup of rhubarb, or in more obstinate cases, of castor oil, or one-fourth teaspoonful compound licorice powder, (F. 108.) but you must never give a drastic purgative, and you must not repeat the aperient if the discharges become yellow and natural. A young infant ought to have from three to six motions in the twenty-four hours, the color ought to be of a bright yellow or orange, and of the consistency of mustard as ordinarily prepared for the table, and there ought not to be any lumps or curds in its motions. A mother or nurse ought to be very observant of the state of the bladder and bowels—should inspect motions daily and see that they are not slimy, or curdled, or green. If they are she should be very careful, especially in regard to what the mother eats and drinks. If the bowels are costive she must avoid the frequent repetition of opening medicine, however gentle and well selected the aperients may be. They interfere with digestion, often irritate the bowels, and render them more costive. For the sake of the child as well as herself, the mother may vary her diet considerably after the first week, she may eat boiled and stewed, broiled and roast meats, mutton, lamb, and beef, fish, game, and chickens, potatoes, turnips, spinach, celery, peas, beans, figs, bananas, prunes, baked apples, &c. (F. 45 to 60.) The bowels of the child that nurses generally (not always) keep pace with those of the mother, and she must endeavor both for her own sake and that of the child, to keep her bowels loose by means of diet. If necessary she must take physic. (F. 107, 108, 109.)