it is purged, or it seems never satisfied, does not gain flesh, does not thrive, cries much and is not happy. In these cases, too, the mother's supply of milk, though abundant at first, diminishes in a few weeks; she feels exhausted, and suffers from back-ache, or from pain in the breasts each time after the child's sucking; while, further, her general weakness leaves her no alternative but to wean the child. Knowing the attempt to rear her child entirely at the breast to be vain, the mother may in such cases be tempted to bring it up by hand from the very first. But how short soever the period may be during which the mother may be able to suckle her child, it is very desirable that she should nurse it during that period, and also that her milk should then constitute its only food. For the first four or five days after the infant's birth the milk possesses peculiar qualities, and not merely abounds in fatty and saccharine matter, but presents its casein or curd in a form in which it is specially easy of digestion. These peculiarities indeed become less marked within a week or two; but not only is it of moment that the infant should at any rate make its start in life with every advantage, but the mother who nurses her little one even for a month avoids thereby almost half the risks which follow her confinement. For the indolent, among the wealthy, a numerous class who have but to form a wish in order to have it gratified, a wet-nurse for the baby suggests itself at once to the mother as a ready means of saving herself trouble, and of shirking responsibility. This course, to which love of pleasure and personal vanity tend alike to prompt her, often finds, in spite of all opposing reasons, the approval of the nurse, to whom it saves trouble, and the too ready acquiescence of the doctor in a course which pleases his patient. But many circumstances besides those moral considerations, which ought never to be forgotten before the determination is formed to employ a wet-nurse, may put this expedient out of the question, and it becomes therefore of importance to learn what is the best course for a mother to adopt who is either wholly unable to suckle her child, or who can do so only for a very short time.