This reason is, that sort of decomposition to which it is subject. If the digestion of it is not very quick, if it stays too long in the stomach, or if, without too long a stay there, it meets in it with matters of a nature to hasten that decomposition, it undergoes in the stomach all the changes, which fall under our observation, out of it. The butyrous, the caseous, the serous parts separate; the whey sometimes occasions a quick diarrhœa; sometimes it passes off by the urinary passages, or by perspiration without nourishing; the other parts, if they stay in the stomach, are not long before they trouble it, cause uneasy sensations, bloatedness, loathings, cholics; and if one is not immediately affected by them, it is because they will have passed into the intestines, where they may, it is true, remain some time without a sensible prejudice, but they acquire there a singular acridity, and after a certain time they produce mischiefs which the delay will not have rendered the less dangerous; and, indeed, it may be established for a law, that should render one extremely circumspect in the prescription of it in dangerous cases, that if it is an aliment of which the digestion is the easiest, it is also that of which the indigestion is the most noxious. We have already mentioned the difficulties that Boerhaave found in the use of it; but however great they may be, the advantages to be drawn from it are so considerable, that it is worth while to study all possible means for surmounting them, and happily such means there are. They may be ranged under two classes; attentions to the regimen, and the medicines. Of these last I shall refer the discussion to one of the following articles.
The attentions to the regimen are, first, the choice of the milk. From whatever species it may be determined to procure it, the female that furnishes it should be healthy, and live regular: Secondly, during the time of taking it, all aliments should be avoided that can turn it sour; such are all fruits, raw or prepared, and in general every thing that is acid: Thirdly, it must be taken at times very distant from other aliments; it not taking kindly any mixture: Fourthly to take only a little of it at a time: Fifthly, all the while to take care of keeping the breast, the abdominal region, and the legs extremely warm: and, above all, Sixthly, (for without this precaution all the others would be useless,) to be very moderate as to the quantity of even the best chosen aliments. During this recourse to milk, there should be no trouble given to the stomach; the smallest over-load, the slightest indigestion, leaves in it a principle of corruption, which presently turns the milk, and may, of the most wholesome of aliments, make a poison sometimes very violent, and, at least, almost always infallibly one, in a greater or less degree.
Another question occurs: What is the milk that merits preference? In answer to this, I will not enter into an examination of the various sorts of milk; this would be over-lengthening my work by an adventitious subject; for satisfaction in which there are many recourses extant, and perhaps none better than a dissertation, now indeed out of print, of the late Mons. d’Apples, M. D. and Professor of Greek and Morality in this College[107].
Now-a-days there are hardly any kinds of milk used but of the female breast, or of asses milk, the goat’s, or the cow’s. Each has its different qualities: it is the comparison of these qualities, and of the indication presented by the disorder, that should determine the choice from among them. There are few cases in which milk from the cow may not be succedaneously used for all the others. That from the female breast is generally believed the most strengthening: it is the notion of the greatest masters in the art, and yet this opinion bears upon a ruinous foundation, which is, the women’s making use of animal food, without considering at the same time that the preference is constantly given to the milk of a hale robust nurse from the country, who eats no flesh-meats, or, at least, very little, and who lives only upon bread and vegetables. I believe, however, that there are cases in which it may be tried with success. The noble cures operated by the use of it, leave no doubt of its efficacy; but there is one inconvenience which is peculiar to it, which is, that it must be taken immediately from the breast that furnishes it: this is a precaution, of which Galen has already taken notice of the necessity, and, in ridicule of those who would not care to confine themselves to it, he refers them “like asses, to asses milk.” But in the case of recourse to the female breast for lactation, might not the vessel of conveyance excite those desires which the main point is to keep under? Might it not expose the patient to the temptation of renewing the adventure of that Prince, the story of whom Capivaccio has preserved to us? He had two nurses given him, whose milk produced so good an effect, that he put them both into a condition of supplying him, at the end of some months, with new milk on a fresh account, if he should happen to need it.
It is thought that asses milk has the nearest analogy to that of the female breast; but, if I may be allowed to say it, this assertion is rather matter of opinion than of experience. It is the most serous, and, from that very quality, the most laxative. It is a most pernicious error the imagining it the most strengthening. Daily observations demonstrate the contrary, and prove not only that it is not the most efficacious, but that it is, perhaps, the least so. I have rarely seen any good effects from it; sometimes I have seen bad ones, and am not the only one that has seen them. M. de Haller, writing to me, says, “It appears to me, that this same asses milk rarely does what it is desired to do.” Now, the inutility of a pretended remedy, in disorders where the hopes of a cure are founded on it, is one of the most grievous defects. M. Hoffman advised it in cases where there were at once an exhaustion and a desire[108].
Before I quit this subject of Aliments, I ought to conclude with the counsel of Horace, to avoid mixtures.
——nam variæ res
Ut noceant homini credas, memor illius escæ