As soon as a child begins to cut his teeth the case is altered, and
_farinaceous food, with milk and with water_, becomes an absolute
necessity.

I wish, then, to call your especial attention to the following-facts,
for they are facts--Farinaceous foods, _of all kinds_, before a child
_commences_ cutting his teeth (which is when he is about six or seven
months old) are worse than useless--they are, positively, injurious,
they are, during the early period of infant life, perfectly
indigestible, and may bring on--which they frequently do--
convulsions. A babe fed on farinaceous food alone would certainly die
of starvation, for, "up to six or seven months of age, infants have
not the power of digesting farinaceous or fibrinous substances"--Dr
Letheby on _Food_.

A babe's salivary glands, until he be six or seven months old, does
not secrete its proper fluid--namely, ptyalin, and consequently the
starch of the farinaceous food--and all farinaceous food contains
starch--is not converted into dextrine and grape-sugar, and is,
therefore, perfectly indigestible and useless--nay, injurious to an
infant, and may bring on pain and convulsions, and even death, hence,
the giving of farinaceous food, until a child be six or seven months
old, is one and the principal cause of the frightful infant mortality
at the present time existing in England, and which is a disgrace to
any civilized land!

In passing, allow me to urge you never to stuff a babe--never to
overload his little stomach with food, it is far more desirable to
give him a little not enough, than to give him a little too much. Many