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775. If the bowels, during "a getting about," be costive, coffee is, from time to time, preferable to either tea, cocoa, or chocolate; but not otherwise. Coffee, if used regularly, requires the taking of exercise, which, of course, during "a getting about" is quite out of the question, although an Occasional cup of coffee, merely to act as an aperient, is often of great service, as it will do away with the necessity of a lying-in woman swallowing an aperient-which is an important consideration. The best time for taking the cup of coffee is early in the morning. Coffee, then, after a confinement, ought to be taken not as a beverage regularly, but as an aperient occasionally.

776. After a week, either a tumblerful of mild homebrewed ale, or of London or of Dublin porter, where it agrees, should be taken at dinner; but if ale or porter be given, wine ought not to be allowed. It would be well to keep either to ale or to porter, as may best agree, and not to mix them, nor to take porter at one meal and ale at another.

777. Barrelled, in this case, is superior to bottled porter, as it contains less fixed air. On the whole, however, I should prefer home-brewed ale to porter. Either old, or very new, or very strong ale, ought not at this time to be given.

778. Great care is required in the summer, as the warm weather is apt to turn the beer acid. Such beer would not only disagree with the mother, but would disorder her milk, and thus the infant. A nursing mother sometimes endeavours to correct sour porter or beer by putting soda in it. This plan is objectionable, as the constant taking of soda is not only weakening to the stomach, but impoverishing to the blood. Moreover, it is impossible, by any artificial expedient, to make either tart beer or porter sound and wholesome, and fit for a nursing mother. If beer or porter be sour, it is not fit to drink, and ought either to be thrown away or should be given to the pigs.

779. Sometimes neither wine nor malt liquor agree; then, either equal parts of new milk and water, or equal parts of fresh milk and barley-water, will generally be found the best beverage. If milk should also disagree, either barley-water, or toast and water, ought to be substituted.

780. Milk will often be made to agree with a nursing mother if she will always take it mixed with an equal quantity of water. The water added to the milk-in the proportions indicated-prevents the milk from binding up the bowels, which it otherwise would do; not only so, but milk

without the addition of an equal quantity of water is usually too heavy for the stomach easily to digest.

781. I have for nearly forty years paid great attention to the subject, and have come to the conclusion, that water is a most valuable aperient; while milk by itself binds up the bowels, producing obstinate costiveness; now, the mixing of an equal quantity of water with the milk entirely deprives milk of its binding qualities, and keeps the bowels in a regular state. These facts are most important to bear in mind; and I know them to be facts, having had great experience in the matter, and having made the subject my especial study, and having had the honour of first promulgating the doctrine that water, in proper quantities, is a valuable aperient, and that water, in due proportions, mixed with milk, prevents the milk from confining the bowels, which it otherwise would do.

CHANGE OF ROOM.

782. The period at which a lying-in woman should leave her room will, of course, depend upon the season, and upon the state of her health. She may, after the first fourteen days, usually change the chamber for the drawing-room, provided it be close at hand; if it be not, she ought, during the day, to remove-be either wheeled or carried in a chairfrom one bedroom to another, as change of apartment will then be desirable. The windows, during her absence from the room, ought to be thrown wide open; and the bed-clothes, in order that they may be well ventilated, should be thrown back. She may, at the end of three weeks, take her meals with the family; but even then she ought occasionally, during the day, to lie on the sofa, to rest her back. Some ladies fancy that if they rest their legs on a sofa, that is sufficient; but it is their backs, and not their legs, that require support; and to procure rest for their backs, they must lie on their backs.

EXERCISE IN THE OPEN AIR.

783. The period at which a lady ought, after her co-finement, to take exercise in the open air, will of course derend upon the season, and upon the state of the wind and wea her. In the winter, not until the expiration of a month, and not

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even then, unless the weather be fine for the season. riage exercise will at first be the most suitable. In the summer she may, at the end of three weeks, take an airing in a carriage, provided the weather be fine, and the wind be neither in an easterly or in a north-easterly direction. At the expiration of the month, she may, provided the season and weather will allow, go out of doors regularly, and gradually resume her household duties and employments.

HOUSEHOLD EMPLOYMENT.

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784. Some persons have an idea, that a wife, for some months after childbirth, should be treated as an invalidshould lead an idle life. This is an error; for of all people in the world, a nursing mother should remember that "employment is Nature's physician, and is essential to human happiness."-(Galen.) The best nurses and the healthiest mothers, as a rule, are working-men's wives, who are employed from morning until night-who have no spare time unemployed to feel nervous, or to make complaints of aches and of pains to make a fuss about; indeed, so well does "Nature's physician -employment-usually make them. feel, that they have really no aches or pains at all-either real or imaginary-to complain of, but are hearty and strong, happy and contented; indeed, the days are too short for them. Working-men's wives have usually splendid breasts of milk—enough and to spare for their infants; while ladies of fortune, who have nothing but pleasure to do, have not half enough, and even in many cases nothing at all, for their babies! Oh, what a blessed thing is occupation! But I am anticipating; I will speak more at large on this subject in the following Part-Part IV., Suckling-and for which I crave my fair reader's especial attention-it being one of great importance, not only to herself, but to the well-doing and well-being of her child.

PART IV.

SUCKLING.

The hour arrives, the moment wish'd and fear'd;
The child is born, by many a pang endear'd!
And now the mother's ear has caught his cry-

Oh! grant the cherub to her asking eye!

He comes-she clasps him; to her bosom press'd,

He drinks the balm of life, and drops to rest.-ROGERS.

'Tis sweet to view the sinless baby rest,

To drink its life-spring from her nursing breast;

And mark the smiling mother's mantling eyes,

While hush'd beneath the helpless infant lies;

How fondly pure that unobtruding pray'r,

Breath'd gently o'er the listless sleeper there!-R. MONTGOMERY.

The starting beverage meets the thirsty lip;
'Tis joy to yield it, and 'tis joy to sip.-RoscOE.

THE DUTIES OF A NURSING MOTHER.

785. A mother ought not, unless she intend to devote herself to her baby, to undertake to suckle him. She must make up her mind to forego the so-called pleasures of a fashionable life. There ought in a case of this kind to be no half-and-half measures; she should either give up her helpless babe to the tender mercies of a wet-nurse, or she must devote her whole time and energy to his welfare-to the greatest treasure that God hath given her!

786. If a mother be blessed with health and strength, and if she have a good breast of milk, it is most unnatural and very cruel for her not to suckle her child—

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"Connubial fair! whom no fond transport warms
To lull your infant in maternal arms;
Who, blessed in vain with tumid bosoms, hear
His tender wailings with unfeeling ear;
The soothing kiss and milky rill deny
To the sweet pouting lip and glistening eye!
Ah! what avails the cradle's damask roof,
The eider bolster, and embroidered woof!
Oft hears the gilded couch unpitied plains,
And many a tear the tassell'd cushion stains!
No voice so sweet attunes his cares to rest,
So soft no pillow as his mother's breast!-

Thus charmed to sweet repose, when twilight hours
Shed their soft influence on celestial bowers,

The cherub Innocence, with smile divine,

Shuts his white wings, and sleeps on beauty's shrine."

Darwin.

787. A mother who is able to suckle her child, but who, nevertheless, will not do so, can have but little love for him; and as indifference begets indifference, there will not be much love lost between them: such a mother is not likely to look after her children, but to leave them to the care of servants. Of such a family it may truly be said—

"There children dwell who know no parent's care;
Parents who know no children's love dwell there.

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788. If a mother did but know the happiness that suckling her babe imparts, she would never for one moment contemplate having a wet-nurse to rob her of that happiness. Lamentable, indeed, must it be, if any unavoidable obstacles should prevent her from nursing her own child.

789. Moreover, if a mother does not suckle her child herself, she is very likely soon to be in the family-way again : this is an important consideration, as frequent child-bearing is much more weakening to the constitution than is the suckling of children; indeed, nursing, as a rule, instead of weakening, strengthens the mother's frame exceedingly, and assists her muscular development. "Those mothers who nurse and cherish their own offspring are not only more truly mothers, but they have a double reward in that, while their children thrive and thus gladden their hearts, they themselves are also very materially benefited. No woman is so healthy as she who bears healthy children healthily."-Dr. Alfred Wiltshire.

790. If the young of animals were not suckled by their own mothers, what an immense number of them would die! what an unnatural state of things it would be considered!

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