From the sudden change attending the introduction of the infant into the world, the many new sensations which it begins to feel, and the non-secretion of milk in the mother’s breasts for some hours after delivery, it seems to have been intended by Nature that both parent and child should have some time for repose before a supply of food should be required by the one or furnished by the other. But, through pure ignorance and mistaken kindness, many nurses, imagining themselves wiser than Nature, and conceiving that the newly-born infant must of necessity be starving after what they consider a nine months’ fast, hasten to fill its stomach with gruel, or some other food. Not unfrequently, severe indigestion is thus induced at the very outset, which in a delicate child may be sufficient to lay the foundation of much suffering and bad health. On the general principle, that no physical want ever exists without the means of supplying it having been provided by Nature, we may safely infer that, in ordinary cases, the secretion of milk will be begun before the infant can possibly require it; and to counteract this arrangement, is to set ourselves up in direct opposition to the Creator, and to give a species of food for which the stomach is not then adapted. It is true that, in the artificial state of society in which we live, the secretion of milk is sometimes delayed so long as to endanger the welfare of the child. In such cases, it may be necessary to give a few tea-spoonfuls of fresh cow’s milk diluted with water, as a temporary substitute for its natural food; but this ought to be only when the necessity is obvious, and in very small quantity at a time, otherwise the stomach and bowels will to a certainty suffer. One evil result of the ignorance of the animal economy which prevails in society, is a habitual distrust of, or want of faith in, the efficiency of the laws which God has appointed for the regulation of the animal functions. We cannot rest satisfied with discovering and yielding obedience to His designs, but we also must do something to assist or _correct_ them! At birth, for example, the stomach and bowels, never having been used for the purposes of digestion, contain a quantity of mucous secretion--_meconium_--which requires to be removed before they can enter upon their functions. To effect this object, Nature has rendered the first portions of the mother’s milk purposely watery and laxative; and, on the part of the infant, nothing farther is required than to allow it to follow its natural instinct and suck it in. Nurses, however, distrusting Nature, often hasten to administer castor oil or some other active purgative in preference, and the result is the excitement of irritation in the stomach and bowels, which is not always easily subdued. If the young of the lower animals were treated after the same unnatural fashion, it can scarcely be doubted that the mortality among them also would be greatly increased.