most natural, the most simple, and least likely to lead the reader into
the danger of misapplying any part of the practical directions of this,
or any future chapter of the work. We will consider, then, that--

Infancy, commencing with birth, extends to about the end of the second
year, when the first dentition is completed.

Childhood extends from about the second, to the seventh or eighth
year, when the second dentition is commenced.



Sect. I. DIETETICS OF INFANCY.



In the early months of infancy the organs of digestion are unsuited to
any other food than that derived from the breast of the mother. So
little capable are they, indeed, to digest any other, even of the
blandest and most digestible kind, that probably not more than one
infant in six or seven ever arrives at the more advanced periods of
life when deprived of the kind of nourishment nature intended for this
epoch.

It is not every parent, however, who is able to become a nurse; and
with many this office would not only be highly injurious to their own
health, but materially so to that of their offspring. This may arise
from various causes, hereafter to be noticed, but whenever they exist a
wet-nurse is demanded.