Remarks on the Subject of Lactation | Page 9

of such effect. This train of
reasoning, therefore, from generally admitted data, seems to prove that
Meningitis, or inflammation of the brain, in children can be produced
by their being suckled for too long a period, and that it is so produced I
assert from repeated experience.
An accidental perusal of Mr. Dendy's able work on the cutaneous
diseases of children, published shortly after the appearance of my paper
before referred to in the Medical and Physical Journal, has recently
afforded me the pleasure of finding that the author had been led to
entertain similar general views on the subject under discussion with
myself; I have, therefore, taken the opportunity of adding that
gentleman's testimony to my own, by quoting the following passage
from his work above mentioned.
'It may be truly said, that the infantine disease excited by milk of a
deleterious, or simply impoverished quality, "grows by what it feeds
on;" and we shall witness the internal debility and the infantine
disorder running their course together. Tabes is the natural consequence
of this error; but its effect is evinced by the occurrence of other
disorders. A defective degree of nutrition, as I have elsewhere stated,
predisposes the system to become influenced by comparatively slight
excitement; and thus, in addition to the direct excitement of disease, it
becomes indirectly its predisposing cause. Under its influence the
serous[L] and mucous membranes become readily the seat of
inflammatory action.'
Those who feel a difficulty in relinquishing old opinions and adopting
new views upon any particular subject, may perhaps ask how it has
happened, if inflammation of the brain from protracted suckling be so
common as the preceding observations and cases would appear to
prove, that medical men of more advanced age and far greater
experience than myself have not previously noticed the circumstance. I
would observe, in reply, that until Harvey pointed out the circulation of

the blood, no one ever suspected the existence of such a phenomenon;
yet now the wonder appears to be, not that Harvey made the discovery,
but that others had not previously done the same. Multitudes, it may be
added, and among them the great Newton, had witnessed the fall of
objects to the ground without thinking of the cause which produced
their downward tendency; the propitious moment, however,
arrived--the apple fell, and the philosopher was led to those deductions
which have rendered his name immortal. So is it with observers of
every class, from those most distinguished by intellectual superiority
and its successful application, down to the humble writer of the present
observations. Facts are continually passing before us unnoticed, till,
from their repeated coincidence, or some accidental impulse, we
attempt, and finally are enabled, to trace their origin.
Thus, until the possibility of Meningitis originating from protracted
lactation had been suggested, practitioners were, of course, unable to
notice the fact--not from its non-occurrence, but because their
unconsciousness of its existence must necessarily preclude the inquiries
from which alone its cause could be determined. Hence a practitioner
may have treated many hundred cases of water on the brain in children,
without being able to attribute any one of them to protracted suckling;
yet this is no proof that such cases did not happen, for, had he made the
requisite inquiries, very probably many among them might have been
found which had thus arisen.
Another objection that may possibly be made to my views, is, that
instances might be adduced where lactation had been persevered in for
a very long period, without any ill effects supervening. That such
frequently occur, there is no doubt; and with respect to them, I have
merely to observe, that they do not in the slightest degree invalidate the
correctness of my conclusions. As well might it be argued, that because
persons have fallen from a very great height without sustaining any
injury, or, because poisonous doses of various drugs have sometimes
been swallowed without death supervening, that, therefore, there is no
danger in jumping from a precipice, or in taking a virulent poison; or
that death never occurs from these causes. Such cases, unless far more
numerous than I imagine them, can only be regarded as exceptions to

the general rule; and, consequently, do not lessen its authority, there
being no rule without an exception.
Some practitioners, with whom I have conversed on the subject, though
willing to allow that protracted suckling, by depraving the milk, may be
the means of occasioning Meningitis in infants during or shortly after
the time they are supplied with this improper food, yet could not
conceive how it can act as a cause of that disease at some future period;
I do not myself, while attempting to account for it, discover any
pathological difficulty.
In these cases it is very probable, that although the protracted suckling