The early application of the proper remedies is of vital importance here.

The progress of the case before matter forms, and when remedies will be of avail to prevent this occurrence, will be this:-The part will enlarge, become tense, heavy, and painful, and the surface will soon appear red; or the enlargement will be irregular, and seem to consist of one or more large lumps, situated in the substance of the breast-this difference arising from the particular part of the breast which is affected. The milk in either case will be partly suppressed, or altogether so.

The means to prevent the inflammation terminating in an abscess will consist in the application of three or four leeches to the part, if the patient be of a full plethoric habit; and the exhibition of saline purgatives; a low and dry diet; keeping the inflamed breast from hanging down; gentle friction with the soap and opium liniment, and preventing the over-distension of the breast from milk by its occasional abstraction.

Saline Purgatives.-These are essentially necessary, so as to produce three or four watery motions in the four-and-twenty hours. And if this is not effected, the medical attendant ought to be informed of it.

Low Diet.-A spare and dry diet is called for. This diminishes the quantity of blood sent to the breast, and thus lessens the amount of distension and milk secreted.

Gentle Friction.-This is to be effected with a liniment, composed of three-fourths of soap-liniment and one-fourth of laudanum. A little should be poured into a saucer and placed upon the hob to warm, and then be very gently rubbed over the breast for about four or five minutes. After this, a piece of flannel the

size of the breast, with a hole in the centre for the nipple, is to be soaked with the liniment and put upon it, and then covered by oiled silk to prevent evaporation; this is to be repeated every three hours. breast at this time is better without a poultice.

The

Drawing the Milk. This ought only to be resorted to when the breast is painfully distended with milk, because the very act of doing this promotes further secretion. The object here is just to relieve the over distension, nothing more; and it is at this period to be accomplished gently and delicately by the nurse only, as the efforts of the infant would be likely to fail, or, if not, they would be so violent as to be productive of mischief.

Keeping the Breast from hanging down.-This is an important point to attend to-may be easily accomplished—and, if well-managed, the ease and comfort arising from it will be manifest enough. For this purpose the breast may be suspended in a silk handkerchief from the neck, and thus firmly and securely held as in a sling. Even when the liniment is being applied, the hand should be placed under the breast for its support, so that it should at no time be permitted, in its present large and heavy condition, to hang by its own weight. The patient will be easiest in the bed or on the sofa.

These measures, when fairly applied, and perseveringly followed out, prevent the formation of matter; the inflammation subsides; a bad breast does not take place; the patient perfectly recovers, and is able to suckle her infant as well with this breast as the other.

But suppose the formation of the abscess is unavoidable, and matter forms? Then, as soon as the part affected is felt to throb, a large bread-and-water

or linseed-meal poultice should be applied; the abscess should be lanced, as soon as this can be done; and, lastly, the patient must be careful that the incision made into it is kept freely open during the process of healing, in order to allow the matter easily to escape. If the poultice, after a little time, should fret the skin, so as to produce an eruption, it may be exchanged for a piece of lint, placed over the opening of the abscess, and over the breast itself a piece of linen spread with spermaceti-ointment. This eruption need give no anxiety, as it frequently does: it is of no consequence, and will soon disappear after the poultices are discontinued.

Is the Child to suck from the affected Breast?— If the matter from the abscess is not mixed with the milk, and the abscess is small, it may do so with advantage to the breast, and no detriment to itself; but if much of the bosom be involved in the disease, the child should be put to the other breast alone.

If the Milk has left the Breast, is it likely to return?-In some instances it soon returns, and the mother may then nurse the infant from it, as well as from the other breast; more frequently, however, it does not, and then the child must be brought up on one breast only.

Will the Hardness which remains in the Breast after the Abscess has healed be removed?—Yes, in time, and the mother need not give herself any uneasiness upon this point. I know that this circumstance gives rise frequently to the most painful and gloomy apprehension; cancer is supposed to be likely Now, there is not the slightest foundation for any such fears; the hardness will remain for a long time, but only because a long time is required for its

to ensue.

absorption, which may be promoted by the part being gently rubbed twice a day with the soap liniment.

I have only to add, that whether your medical attendant pursue the plan of treatment for the management of a bad breast just detailed, or adopt one in some respects differing from it, do not fail to give him an early opportunity of attacking the disease; and when he has pointed out the plan to be pursued, follow his directions to the letter, not permitting the suggestion of another in any way to interfere with, or alter, that plan.

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CHAPTER IX.

OF NURSING.

Sect. 1.—The Duty and Advantages of the Mother Nursing her Infant.

It may be called a fixed law of nature that a healthy woman should suckle her offspring. There are exceptions; but as a general rule it holds good, and like all other laws in nature, it cannot be broken with impunity. To refuse to comply with this arrangement of Providence, is to forego the first reward of previous suffering. It is plainly intended to cherish and increase the love of the parent herself, and to establish in the dependent and helpless infant, from the first hours of its existence, those associations on which its affection and confidence afterwards will be most securely founded. The evidence of design is manifest. So long as the child is unborn, no milk is secreted in the mother's breast; but no sooner does she give it birth, than this fluid is prepared and poured forth, admirably fitted in its qualities for the rapid growth of its delicate organism. It embraces the three principles (the albuminous, the oleaginous, and saccharine) of which the diet of man consists, in his most perfect physical development and greatest intellectual vigour, and, moreover, is the only food supplied by nature in which such a combination does exist. 'It is a model,' says Dr. Prout,