milk, if not altogether suppressed, is rendered either deficient in quantity or deteriorated in quality. Finally, the breast-milk may become depraved and injurious by the process of lactation being continued too long, a practice which is, unfortunately, in this, as well as other countries, extensively prevalent. I have not yet had an opportunity of examining the breast-milk in these diseased conditions except by the eye, and that rarely--but even this slight examination has enabled me to state, that it was greatly altered from its natural condition;--that it was more fluid than usual, and changed in colour, resembling a yellowish turbid serum, instead of displaying its well-known bluish hue. I propose in future to attend carefully to this subject, and I would beg leave to recommend it as one well worthy the notice of those members of our profession who have made animal chemistry a particular study, having no doubt that they would be able, by a series of accurate experiments upon the breast-milk at different periods after delivery, and under various conditions of the mother, to collect many interesting and important facts--such, perhaps, as would tend very materially to augment our knowledge of pathology, and improve our practice in the treatment of certain diseases[C]. We cannot but believe that the Supreme Being has done nothing without an infinitely wise and good object, and it is obviously our interest, no less than our duty, to be guided by those indications of the Divine purpose which are distinctly to be traced throughout the creation. It must appear evident to all who examine the matter in question, that the infant was intended to be nourished for the first few months of its existence through the medium of a fluid; because no teeth are provided to prepare for its use substances of a more solid description; and there can be no doubt that this fluid is the mother's milk;--but when the child has attained a certain age the teeth begin to appear, doubtless at the precise time when they are meant to be used; and, therefore, more solid food should now be given. Besides, in consequence of its new acquisition, the child sucks less perfectly than before, an additional proof that weaning ought at this period to be commenced. Indeed, the teeth are calculated indirectly to produce this effect themselves, the mother being now liable to suffer inconvenience by letting the child take the breast--for the latter _bites_ instead of _sucking_ the nipple, and the pain hence arising may, perhaps, induce the former, for her own sake, to discontinue a practice injurious to both.