'Don't tell me, Margaret. A nursing mother has no business to
fret. She must turn her mind away from her grief to the comfort that
lies in her lap. Know you not that the child pines if the mother vexes
herself?'"--_The Cloister and the Hearth_. By Charles Reade.]

A wet-nurse ought never to be allowed to dose her little charge either
with Godfrey's Cordial, or with Dalby's Carminative, or with Syrup of
White Poppies, or with medicine of any kind whatever. Let her
thoroughly understand this, and let there be no mistake in the
matter. Do not for one moment allow your children's health to be
tampered and trifled with. A baby's health is too precious to be
doctored, to be experimented upon, and to be ruined by an ignorant
person.

40. _Have the goodness to state at what age a child ought to be
weaned_?

This, of course, must depend both upon the strength of the child, and
upon the health of the parent; on an average, nine months is the
proper time. If the mother be delicate, it may be found necessary to
wean the infant at six months; or if he be weak, or labouring under
any disease, it may be well to continue suckling him for twelve
months; but after that time, the breast will do him more harm than
good, and will, moreover, injure the mother's health, and may, if she
be so predisposed, excite consumption.

41. _How would you recommend a mother to act when, she weans her
child_?

She ought, as the word signifies, do it gradually--that is to say, she