OF CHILDREN.

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is healthy, and has plenty of milk.* If she be at thesame time cleanly, careful, and good-natured, she canhardly fail to make a proper nurse. After all, how-ever, the only certain proof of a good nurse, is a healihychild upon her breast. But, as the misconduct ofnurses often proves more fatal to children, it will beof importance to point out a few of their most bane-ful errors, in order to rouse the attention of parents,and to make them look more strictly into the conductof those to whom they commit the care of their infantoffspring.

Though it admits of some exceptions, yet we maylay it down as a general rule, That every xvoman whonurses for hire should be carefidly looked after, other-wise she xvill not do her duty. For this reason, parentsought always to have their children nursed under theirown eye, if possible; and, where this cannot be donethey should be extremely circumspect ifi the choiceof those persons to whom they intrust them. It is afolly to imagine, that a woman, who abandons her ownchild to suckle another for the sake of gain, should feelall the affections of a parent towards her nursling; yetso necessary are these affections in a nurse, that, butfor them, the human race would be soon extinct.

One of the most common faults of those who nursefor hire is, to dose the children with stupefactives, orsuch things as lull them to sleep. An indolent nurse,who does not eive a child sufficient exercise in theopen air to make it sleep, and does not choose to bedisturbed by it in the night, will seldom fail to procurefor it a dose of laudanum, diascodium, saffron, or, whatanswers the same purpose, a dram of spirits or otherstrong liquors. These, though they may be poison toinfants, are every day administered by many who bearthe character of very good nurses.']"

* I have often known people so imposed upon, as to give an infantto a nurse to be sucked who had not one drop of milk in her breast.

+ If a mother, on visiting a child at nurse, finds it always asleep,I would advise her to remove it immediately, otherwise it will soonsleep its last.