FEEDING INFANTS. For at least six or seven months after birth, the most appropriate food for an infant is its mother's milk, which, when the parent is healthy, is rich in all the elements necessary for its growth and support. Next to the mother's milk, that of a healthy nurse should be preferred; in the absence of both, milk from a cow that has recently calved is the most natural substitute, in the proportion of one part water to two parts milk, slightly sweetened. The milk used should be from but one cow. All sorts of paps, gruels, panadas, cordials, laxatives, etc., should be strictly prohibited, for their employment as food cannot be too severely censured. Vomiting, diarrhea, colic, green stools, griping, etc., are the inevitable results of their continued use. The child should be fed at regular intervals, of about two hours, and be limited to a proper amount each time, which, during the first month, is about two ounces. From 11 P.M. to 5 A.M. the child should be nursed but once. As the child grows older the intervals should be lengthened, and the amount taken at a time gradually increased. The plan of gorging the infant's stomach with food every time it cries, cannot be too emphatically condemned. After the sixth or seventh month, in addition to milk, bits of bread may be allowed, the quantity being slowly increased, thus permitting the diet to change gradually from fluid to solid food, so that, when the teeth are sufficiently developed for mastication, the child has become accustomed to various kinds of nourishment. Over-feeding, and continually dosing the child with cordial, soothing syrups, etc., are the most fruitful sources of infant mortality, and should receive the condemnation of every mother in the land. PREPARATION OF FOOD. The production of pure blood requires that all the food selected should be rich in nutritious elements, and well cooked. To announce a standard by which all persons shall be guided in the selection and preparation of their food is impossible. Especially is this the case in a country the inhabitants of which represent almost every nation on the face of the globe. Travelers are aware that there is as much diversity in the articles of food and methods of cookery, among the various nationalities, as in the erection of their dwellings, and in their mental characteristics. In America we have a conglomeration of all these peoples; and for a native American to lay down rules of cookery for his German, French, English, Welsh, and Irish neighbors, or _vice versa_, is useless, for they will seldom read them, and, therefore, cannot profit by them. There are, however, certain conditions recognized by the hygienic writers of every nation. The adequate nutrition of the organic tissues demands a plentiful supply of pure blood, or the digestive apparatus will become impaired, the mental processes deranged, and the entire bony and muscular systems will lose their strength and elasticity, and be incapacitated for labor.