Remarks on the Subject of Lactation | Page 5

observed when suckling has been injudiciously protracted beyond the
period to which it should be confined.
A few only of the foregoing symptoms may be noticed, or nearly the
whole may present themselves, in the same patient; and when this
happens, unless the cause which has given rise to them be at once
detected, and appropriate treatment employed, the most serious
consequences may be apprehended.
In these cases, the first step necessary is to discontinue the suckling
altogether: half measures will never answer. Sometimes it is proposed
by the patient, or her friends (more usually the latter), to compromise
the affair by feeding the child partly on spoon meat, and allowing him

still to take the breast, though less frequently than before.
This plan I uniformly object to, for the following reasons:--
1st. Because the mother will not be likely to recover so long as she
continues to suckle at all.
2nd. Because her milk being necessarily of a bad quality, it cannot be
expected that the child will derive benefit from it; but, on the contrary,
there is every probability that his health will suffer by using diet of
such an improper description.
The obvious dependence of the foregoing symptoms upon debility will,
of course, at once suggest to practitioners the nature of the treatment to
be adopted: which should be such as is calculated to invigorate the
system generally--namely, the administration of tonics, &c.
Bark and its various preparations, especially the sulphate of quinine,
with the occasional use of warm aperients (sedulously avoiding the
more violent purgatives), will be found eminently successful; whereas,
cupping at the nape of the neck (which I have seen prescribed for the
headache), and other depletory measures, have proved as manifestly
injurious.
'Every disease productive of great weakness is increased by the state of
the system which follows child-bearing. Of this description are
consumption, dropsy,' &c. In these cases it is evident that the process of
lactation, by adding to the debility already present, must prove highly
injurious, and consequently should be always avoided.
I have already noticed the effects which are produced upon the milk by
the influence of mental emotions on the part of the mother, as well as
by the recurrence of the periodical appearance; and since these are
chiefly injurious to the child, by depraving its sustenance, their further
consideration will be deferred till the next chapter.
With respect to the remaining topic--namely, the occurrence of
miscarriage from suckling--I am convinced that it is by no means an

unfrequent accident, though its real cause is perhaps rarely suspected,
having only met with one patient who considered the mishap in
question to have arisen from keeping her child too long at the breast.
Having already, I trust satisfactorily, explained the manner in which
abortion is produced by the act of suckling, I shall conclude this part of
my subject with the relation of a case that occurred in private practice,
which so strongly corroborates many of the observations in the
preceding and following pages, that I shall offer no apology for its
introduction: more particularly, since the lady herself to whom it refers
has benevolently expressed a wish for its publication, in order that
those who become acquainted with the facts there detailed may be
prevented from undergoing similar unnecessary sufferings:--
CASE.
Mrs. A----, a lady of delicate constitution, about twenty years of age,
three or four months subsequent to the birth of her first child, began to
find her milk gradually lessen in quantity; it had also much changed
from its previous appearance, resembling at the time just stated, a
yellowish, turbid serum. Her child became emaciated; and diarrh[oe]a
supervening, my professional services were required. My advice was,
that the child should be at once weaned, and a suitable wet-nurse, if
possible, procured--neither of which suggestions, as will shortly appear,
were followed. I urged the necessity of this measure more particularly,
because Mrs. A---- was daily getting thinner and weaker; she also
complained of great pain in the head and back, and of an increasing
dimness of sight, which made her fear she should become blind; but the
mother-in-law of my patient being, unfortunately, of opinion that
pregnancy in the latter would not again occur during the continuance of
lactation, recommended that the child, although chiefly supported upon
spoon-meat, should occasionally be allowed to take the breast; and this
plan, notwithstanding the wish of Mrs. A---- to the contrary, and my
own remonstrances on the subject, was adopted--the effects of which
were to increase the mother's ailments, as well as those of her infant.
Things went on thus for some time longer, when I once more
endeavoured to persuade Mrs. A---- to follow my advice, observing,
that by an opposite line of conduct she was not only injuring her own

health, but