The British Journal of Homoeopathy Volume 15 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1857 Excerpt: ... 400 ON THE FOOD OF INFANTS, By Mr. H. Turner, Chemist. An article on this subject in the last number of the Journal, has reminded me, that I ought to make public, a method I discovered many years ago, of preparing what has been repeatedly mentioned as a desideratum, viz., a food for infants, which shall contain all the constituents of the mother's milk in their proper proportions, and which shall be at the same time cheaply and easily prepared. The best food for infants is undoubtedly that which nature herself provides, viz., the child's own mother's milk; but sometimes mothers have no milk, or not sufficient for the child's nourishment, and in some cases it is expedient for other reasons that she should not nurse. In such cases it is usual to seek for a wet-nurse, who generally turns out a nuisance in the house, barely endurable. If the nurse has lost her own child of nearly the same age as the one she is engaged to suckle, her health good, and all parties satisfied, then nothing can be said against the arrangement; but if her own offspring is living, and if it has to be taken from her, and deprived of its own proper nourishment, an unnatural and cruel wrong is inflicted on the poor helpless and innocent sufferer; and if, as is often the case, the selected nurse is a mother but not a wife, the encouragement to immorality is so direct and positive, as to be shrunk from by all right minded persons, and vice is rewarded with a good home, good living, and little or no work. In other cases the infant is "dry-nursed," or "brought up by the hand," that is, if it should not happen to be killed by the process, as is too often the case, and then of course it is not " brought up" at all. That improper food is the cause of much infant mortality there cannot be a doubt...