“Let appetite, then, be the only rule, but allow it to appear, and do not attempt to provoke it. The breast ought not to be offered to the infant; it is for him to seek it. He has little need of sucking who takes it with indifference, or as if he were conferring a favour. He who is hungry acts very differently; all his gestures express clearly the want and the desire; his eye follows his nurse, and tries to interpret her every movement. If he is crying, his cries cease at her approach, and smiles replace his tears. If he is offered the breast, he seizes it with ardour, and the mother yields to a natural want.” But it is far otherwise when real appetite is wanting, and “it then becomes an act of cruel perfidy to tempt the infant by the offer of the breast. How can it be expected to resist the temptation, when the adult whose appetite is already satisfied at the festive board, yields to the solicitations of the host, and gorges himself with aliments which he cannot digest?”[46] The same intelligent author remarks, that the lower animals instinctively avoid this error, and, instead of offering suck too often, rather allow themselves to be strongly solicited before yielding to the wishes of their young. By this provident arrangement, the latter are protected from the evils of too frequent eating. Many mothers imagine that milk is so bland a fluid that it is impossible for an infant to take too much of it; but the fallacy of the notion is exposed when we recollect that milk is coagulated the moment it reaches the stomach, and that the real subject of digestion is _curd_--a substance not quite so light as milk has the appearance of being. The grand rule, then, during the early months of infancy, is to satisfy the clearly indicated and ascertained wants of the child, but neither to confine it to regular hours, nor to offer it food when it is crying solely from pain and not from hunger. When the system has become more developed, and the stomach accustomed to the exercise of its functions, regularity in the distribution of its meals may be gradually and beneficially introduced; because, in the animal economy, there is a natural tendency to periodicity, which greatly facilitates the formation of proper habits.