Lechery

“ The sanitary condition of the dairy, the cleanliness of the vessels into which the milk is placed, the health of the milkers, and a surety that no member of their family with whom they come in contact has any kind of contagious disease, are all obligatory. ”

“ Attention must be paid to the cleanliness of the vessel, and care should be taken that the milk be that of ONE cow, and that it be new and of good quality; for if not, it will turn acid and sour, and disorder the stomach, and will thus cause either flatulence or looseness of the bowels, or perhaps convulsions. I consider it to be of immense importance to the infant, that the milk be had from ONE cow. ”

“ Infants in nursing move the jaws to obtain the milk, and the working of the infant’s jaw mixes the milk with the saliva, and thus fits that milk to go into the stomach. After being subjected to the action of the stomach for two or three hours the food becomes fitted to pass into the circulation by absorption. To have good food, therefore, it is necessary that it be made of proper material properly prepared. We are furnished with milk to start with as we enter the world. Had meat been the best diet, we should have been born with beefsteaks in our hands. ”

“ For the majority of those who lead healthy, simple lives, milk is an excellent article of diet, but the milk of each animal is distinguished by some peculiarities; and as that of the cow is by far the most useful to us, the following remarks will chiefly have reference to that source of supply. When drawn from the cow, the milk is of a yellowish-white colour, and is most yellow at the beginning of the period of lactation. ”

“ When the infant is to be fed with cow milk, that from various cows is submitted to examination by the medical man, and, if possible, tried on some child, and when the milk of any cow has been chosen, no other milk is ever suffered to enter the child’s lips, for a French lady would as soon offer to her infant’s mouth the breasts of half-a-dozen wet-nurses in the day, as mix together the milk of various cows, which must differ even as the animals themselves, in its constituent qualities. ”

“ A nurse makes the greatest mistake when she takes stimulants in place of her proper meals, if she cannot eat, or feels too anxious to sit down to table; then let her take something in place of the ordinary food; an egg, either beaten up with a little warm milk and drunk right off, or break it into a wineglass, add a little salt, and swallow it whole without breaking the yolk; even a drink of milk will stay the stomach for a time. ”

“ ARTIFICIAL NURSING. Should the mother afford no milk by reason of malformation, or otherwise, the child should be accustomed to the most healthful kind of food from the first. Milk from one animal should be sought. Animals that are fed on corn, hay and fodder, make the best milk in winter; those fed on clover and cured hay, the best in summer. The milk of animals fed mostly on turnips, cabbages, and potatoes, is more apt to disagree with the stomach. ”

“ The same measures may be resorted to where the milk, though satisfying in character, is deficient in quantity; and in preparing artificial food for the child it must always be remembered that the food requires to be adapted to the stage of development which is manifested by a young infant's digestive organs. ”

“ But, if fresh milk is so valuable a food for the sick, the least change or sourness in it, makes it of all articles, perhaps, the most injurious; diarrhœa is a common result of fresh milk allowed to become at all sour. The nurse therefore ought to exercise her utmost care in this. ”

“ The moment the milk enters the human maw or stomach, the juice of the stomach converts it into curds—into solid food, just as readily as when it enters a calfs maw or stomach, and much more readily than by rennet, as the fresh juice is stronger than the stale. An ignorant mother often complains that because, when her child is sick, the milk curdles, that it is a proof that it does not agree with him! ”

“ Human milk is light and strengthening and much used in eye diseases. Cow's milk increases the secretion of semen. Buffalo's milk induces sleep when taken in large quantities. Goat's milk is sweet and light, and is recommended in phthisis and blood diseases. Sheep's milk is hot, and is believed to promote the growth of hair. ”

“ Fresh animal food, under the form of butcher's meat, is rarely known to the labouring classes, except in towns, where an occasional meal of it is seen, as well as wheaten bread. Milk is also in use more or less, but is by no means an extensive article of diet. ”

“ Such a food is milk; and, if the human supply is insufficient, we obtain in its place that of the cow, chiefly; and during the first year of life milk constitutes the best form of food. After that time other kinds of nourishment, mostly well-cooked wheaten flour in various shapes, begin to be added to the milk which long continues to be a staple source of nourishment to the young animal. ”

“ Unfortunately for the infant, however, it frequently happens that after weaning, and if it has been nursed by a healthy mother, or other wet nurse, being well fed on two or three pints of wholesome milk, daily, its food supply is reduced by substitution of one kind or another, more or less devoid of essential elements, with the common result of emaciation and tenderness, and increased liability to sickness. ”

“ Those who with ordinary food invariably fail to nurse longer than a few weeks, are capable by this diet of becoming not only good nurses, but also of gaining flesh while secreting the milk in abundance. ”

“ The milk prepared for the young of the different animals in the laboratory or kitchen of Nature is surely adapted to their structure as regards natural food requirements. Without assuming that the human dietetic requirements are identical with either of the other mammals, we may learn something concerning our approximation to one class or another by comparing the composition of human milk with that of the animals in question. ”

“ In considering the composition of the food of animals, it will be readily admitted that the milk, the nutriment supplied by nature for the maintenance of the young animal, must afford special instruction as to its requirements during the early stages of existence, and indicate, at least, some of the points to be attended to under the altered conditions of mature life. ”

“ Here are some pictures showing how people get the germs of consumption into them unless they are very careful.
A large number of cows have the germs or seeds of consumption in them, and they give out these germs in their milk. So milk ought to be "sterilised," that is to say, it should be made so hot that the germs are killed before it is drunk.
[Illustration: DO NOT DRINK MILK STRAIGHT FROM THE COW, AS A GREAT
NUMBER OF THESE ANIMALS HAVE THE GERMS OF CONSUMPTION IN THEM.]
Then a large number of people have the consumption germs in them, although they may not yet be ill with it. ”

“ If the nurse’s milk happen to be corrupted by an accident, as sometimes it may be, being either too hot or too cold, in such cases let her diet be good, and let her observe the cautions which have already been given her. And then, if her milk be too hot, let her cool it with endive, 315succory, lettuce, sorrel, purslain, and plantain; if it be too cold, let her use burorage, vervain, buglos, mother of thyme, and cinnamon; and let her observe this general rule, that whatsoever strengthens the child in the womb, the same attends the milk. ”

“ Birds, knotted thickening of bones, flexibility. Fever, colics, indigestion. Lameness shifting, intermittent, relapsing. Paraplegia. Treatment, hygienic, vigorous breeding animals, nutritious rations, rich in earthy salts, well balanced, from sound land, rich abundant milk without excess of fat, avoid spoiled food, adapt cow’s milk to foal or puppy, fresh air, sunshine, damp soils, antacids, lime water, laxatives, bitters, phosphates, bone dust, phosphorus. ”

“ Milk, either in its natural state, or in the form of butter and cheese, is an article of diet so useful, wholesome and palatable, that dairy management, which includes all that concerns its production and treatment, constitutes a most important branch of husbandry. The physical conditions of the different countries of the world have determined in each case the most suitable animal for dairy purposes. ”

“ The combination of milk and water for a child is a glorious compound—strengthening, fattening, refreshing, and regulating to the bowels, and thus doing away with that disgraceful proceeding so common in nurseries, of everlastingly physicking, irritating and irreparably injuring the tender bowels of a child. ”

“ Milk ought to be a great article in the diet: and even in this there should be choice. The milk of grass-fed cows has its true quality: no other. There are a multitude of ways in which this may be made a part both of our foods and drinks, and they should all be used. ”

“ Some farmers, desirous of rendering their calves fat for the butcher in as short a time as possible, forget both the natural weakness of the digestive powers, and the contracted volume of the stomach, and allow the animals either to suck ad libitum, or give them, if brought up at the pail or by hand, a larger quantity of milk than they can digest. ”

“ That these babies have fevers and rashes, and a host of diseases peculiar to that age, is a matter of course; and equally a matter of course that the round-eyed mother wonders where it got its dreadful disposition, but scorns the thought that lager or coffee can be irritants, or that the baby stomach requires but one food, and that one the universal food of all young animal life,—milk. ”

“ If, consequently, a new-born infant be provided with a nurse, who has been delivered three or four months, the natural relation between its stomach and the quality of the milk is destroyed, and the infant suffers from the oppression of food too heavy for its digestive power. ”

“ Promptly remove from the herd any animal suspected of being in bad health, and reject her milk. Never add an animal to the herd until it is ascertained to be free from disease, especially tuberculosis. 14. Do not move cows faster than a comfortable walk while on the way to the place of milking or feeding. 15. Never allow the cows to be excited by hard driving, abuse, loud talking or unnecessary disturbance ”

“ The nurse should always wear a wash dress in the confinement and lying-in room.
If the labor is long, nourishment in the form of beef-tea, broths, and milk may be given. No stimulants should be given without the direction of the physician. The frequent taking of cold water is permissible. ”

“ It is naturally to be supposed that you would take as much pains as possible with the cow, that she might give good milk for the calf; and if you have a fancy for raising pigs, you would be equally careful in regard to the sow. We will suppose you think there is danger that the animal will not produce milk enough for the required purpose. ”

“ We may say, then, that while there are many species of bacteria infesting the dairy which can sour the milk, there is one which is more common and more universally found than others, and this is the ordinary cause of milk souring. ”

“ A diet of milk and mild farinaceous articles, with perhaps light animal decoctions, appears best suited to the early years of life. Whenever there exists an evident inflammatory tendency, as is the case in some scrofulous systems, solid animal food, if used at all, should be taken with the greatest precaution. ”

“ Because of the characteristic qualities of milk, the strictest sanitary measures should be observed in all the processes involved, from the time the milk is taken from the cow until it is delivered to the customer. ”

“ There, perhaps, being nourished by tenderer, sweeter, and perhaps, more tasty tissues, the stomach becomes more vigorous, until it is fit to undertake less easily digested food. A nursling is fed on milk before proceeding to bread and broth. ”

“ European experience is cited in support of each. We are told that cow's milk, intended by nature for an infant cow with four stomachs, is not suited, even when absolutely pure, to the human infant's single stomach. ”

“ Milk, plain or peptonized; milk punch, raw eggs, broths, beef juice. If swallowing is difficult, give food cold and oftener, and in less quantity. Increase the diet rapidly during convalescence.
Cold drinks should be freely given. Barley water and oatmeal water are nutritious and palatable. Milk broths, and articles that give no trouble to digest.
Nursing.—Nursing is the main thing. The bowels should be kept open with salts. There is no special medicine we can claim will do good. Aconite may be used for the fever at first, in drop doses every hour for twenty-four hours. ”

“ The milk should never be left standing on the doorsteps in the sun, for many reasons: the sun heats the milk, encourages the growth of bacteria, and a passing cat or dog, whose mouth often contains the germs of scarlet fever, tonsilitis, and diphtheria, should it be hungry, laps the tops of the bottles, particularly in the winter when the cream has frozen and is bulging over the edge.
2. It should never be kept in the warm kitchen, as when visiting her sick baby we discovered one young mother doing. ”

“ After the period when Nature has ordained the child shall live by other means, the secretion of milk becomes thin and deteriorated, showing in the flabby flesh and puny features of the child both its loss of nutritious properties and the want of more stimulating aliment. ”