Edward Morton

“ It is also no less generally known that food of a bad quality or improper description will produce derangements in the digestive organs. Now, having already shewn that the milk when lactation is protracted becomes deteriorated, it plainly appears that such milk is capable of occasioning derangement of the chylopoietic viscera; and it being allowed that derangement of these viscera, from any source, may give rise to inflammation of the brain, I conceive it follows that protracted lactation must be admitted as one cause of such effect. ”

“ If the breasts continue to receive a sufficient quantity of blood, the secretion of milk goes on properly, but the womb is deprived of its necessary supply; the embryo, in consequence, languishes and dies, and, becoming an extraneous body, is thrown off, producing abortion; while, on the other hand, should the womb still obtain its due proportion of blood, the breasts are robbed of it, and the secretion of milk, if not altogether suppressed, is rendered either deficient in quantity or deteriorated in quality. ”

“ Violent affections of the mind will cause the milk to become thin and yellowish, and to acquire noxious properties: even the fond mother's anxiety, while hanging over the couch of her sick infant, will be sufficient to render it unfit for the sustenance of the object of her solicitude.
The state also of the stomach and bowels and the diet of the nurse materially and constantly influence the nature of the lacteal secretion. ”

“ The belief so generally prevailing, that the longer a child is suckled the stronger it will become, is a prejudice, like many others concerning women and children, which has been handed down from mother to daughter for ages, and has thereby become so universally entertained and so deeply rooted in the minds of females, that even medical men scarcely venture to question its propriety. ”

“ Besides which, we shall find that when from any cause whatever the nurse's milk becomes impoverished and deteriorated, even if this take place at an early period after delivery, the injurious effects already referred to may be produced in the child: for improper food, whether it be bad milk or any other inappropriate article of diet, is always calculated to derange the functions of the stomach, bowels, and other chylopoietic viscera, and in consequence to occasion disease. ”

“ In these cases it is very probable, that although the protracted suckling was not sufficient to produce actual Meningitis at its conclusion, yet that it so weakened the system in general, and the brain in particular, as to render the latter especially predisposed to inflammatory action; and that we have reason to suppose this not only possible, but probable, from analogy, cannot be denied, since it is known that scrofulous [Pg 46] children, in whom there is great laxity and debility of habit, are inordinately liable to be affected with Hydrocephalus, or Water in the Brain. ”

“ As a general rule, at nine months after birth the child ought to be entirely weaned; and in no instance should he be permitted to suck more than ten. In many cases suckling may be relinquished with advantage (and occasionally it is absolutely necessary to discontinue it) before the time first above mentioned; in others, however, it may be protracted beyond it.
I by no means recommend the breast-milk to be at once superseded by artificial food, but, on the contrary, that the child should be gradually accustomed to such aliment from a much earlier period ”

“ It is universally allowed among medical men that irritations in the stomach and bowels will, through the agency of particular nerves, produce sympathetic irritation [Pg 40] in the brain,—that peculiar action being thus elicited which terminates in the effusion of serum, constituting the disease named Hydrocephalus.—'The continued irritation of important or very sensible nerves is, perhaps,' says Mr. Burns, 'one of the most common causes' (of Hydrocephalus) ”

“ We cannot but believe that the Supreme Being has done nothing without an infinitely wise and good object, and it is obviously our interest, no less than our duty, to be guided by those indications of the Divine purpose which are distinctly to be traced throughout the creation.
It must appear evident to all who examine the matter in question, that the infant was intended to be nourished for the first few months of its existence through the medium of a fluid; because no teeth are provided to prepare for its use substances of a more solid description ”

“ It is worthy of notice, that among the cases which have been detailed in the foregoing pages, were fourteen in whom affection of the head supervened during the progress of other diseases, and in ten of them the disease was Hooping-cough.
The treatment of Meningitis arising from protracted suckling will not differ from what is proper when it has been produced by other causes; except that the depletory measures should not be carried to so great an extent, as it must be remembered that the disease is existing in constitutions already debilitated. ”

“ Many young ladies, on becoming mothers, are incapable of supporting the constant drain to which the wants of their infants subject them—they lose their good looks, become gradually weaker, and as their strength declines, their milk is simultaneously lessened in quantity, and altered in its other properties.
If the suckling be still continued, their debility daily increases, distressing pains in the back and loins succeed; the patients become exceedingly nervous, as it is termed, and are unusually susceptible of ordinary impressions ”

“ Those who feel a difficulty in relinquishing old opinions and adopting new views upon any particular subject, may perhaps ask how it has happened, if inflammation of the brain from protracted suckling be so common as the preceding observations and cases would appear to prove, that medical men of more advanced age and far greater experience than myself have not previously noticed the circumstance. ”

“ Some practitioners, with whom I have conversed on the subject, though willing to allow that protracted suckling, by depraving the milk, may be the means of occasioning Meningitis in infants during or shortly after the time they are supplied with this improper food, yet could not conceive how it can act as a cause of that disease at some future period ”

“ Burns asserts that in these cases the milk 'does not become hurtful,' but in this opinion I must beg leave to differ from him; since I have repeatedly seen it, from this cause, palpably altered in appearance, and have observed diarrhœa and great debility produced in the children who were suckled with it.
An almost universally received opinion among females, and, indeed, one very frequently entertained by members of the medical profession, is, that while a woman continues to nurse her infant she will not again become pregnant ”

“ Although we cannot explain how the brain and nerves act, and probably never shall be able to do so, yet we are well aware that their influence is absolutely requisite for the healthy performance of every function in the human body.
That mental inquietude will impede digestion is a fact familiar to almost every one ”

“ Indeed, the occurrence of convulsions from this cause (diseased milk) has been mentioned by several of the best authors. Mr. North, in particular, (whose excellent work [Pg 54] on Convulsions should be in the hands of every practitioner) observes—'It cannot be doubted that children suffer, that their health is destroyed, and the foundation laid for convulsive diseases, by sucking unhealthy nurses.' 'A predisposition to convulsive affections in children may be originally produced in consequence of their being suckled by a nurse addicted to the frequent use of spirituous liquors. ”

“ In the truth of those opinions I feel the most perfect confidence, and cannot but hope that their promulgation will hereafter prove extensively beneficial, since precautionary, and even therapeutical measures may be founded upon them, which, if uniformly adopted, will not only prevent much ill-health and suffering to mothers, but will also afford the means of saving many children from perishing by one of the most painful and fatal diseases to which they are subject. ”

“ Several cases which I witnessed led me to believe, some years ago, that inflammation of the brain, or its membranes, might be produced in children, owing to their being suckled for an undue length of time. ”

“ It is a fact too palpable to be questioned, that the food generally given to infants brought up by hand is not only administered in an improper manner, but is also of an improper quality; their tender stomachs are daily overloaded with solid instead of liquid aliment, and hence arises the numerous train of evils which, in my opinion, produce the great mortality just referred to. ”

“ As well might it be argued, that because persons have fallen from a very great height without sustaining any injury, or, because poisonous doses of various drugs have sometimes been swallowed without death supervening, that, therefore, there is no danger in jumping from a precipice, or in taking a virulent poison ”

“ CASES IN ILLUSTRATION OF THE FOREGOING VIEWS. I. Cases of Meningitis [I] supervening upon protracted suckling. CASE I.
—— Wilshire, aged two years seven months, died of 'Water on the brain,'—suckled twelve months. ”

“ The milk, besides, is liable to deterioration from another cause, namely, the recurrence of the usual periodical appearance—for should this take place in a nurse, it is agreed that her milk is liable to produce disorders in the child who imbibes it; which could not happen, if the former possessed its ordinary component parts, and retained its natural properties.
The recurrence, moreover, of pregnancy in [Pg 4] the lactescent female may render the milk of a bad quality, and will invariably lessen its quantity. Mr. ”