Convulsions arising from protracted suckling, or simply from the nurse's milk becoming deteriorated at any period, are very common, and I have kept notes of many such cases that have occurred in the course of my own practice; which, however, I abstain from here inserting, being anxious to prevent the present publication from swelling into a volume. Indeed, the occurrence of convulsions from this cause (diseased milk) has been mentioned by several of the best authors. Mr. North, in particular, (whose excellent work on Convulsions should be in the hands of every practitioner) observes--'It cannot be doubted that children suffer, that their health is destroyed, and the foundation laid for convulsive diseases, by _sucking unhealthy nurses_.' 'A predisposition to convulsive affections in children may be originally produced in consequence of their being suckled by a nurse addicted to the frequent use of spirituous liquors. In several instances I have known children rapidly recover their health when the nurse was changed, who had exhibited most of the premonitory symptoms of convulsions while they were suckled by a woman who indulged in the common vice of gin-drinking.' And Mr. Burns also makes the following remark--'Violent passions of the mind affect the milk still more;--it often becomes thin and yellowish, and _causes_ colic, or even _fits_.' It is needless, however, to say more on this topic, since it is one which no longer admits of discussion.
The reader may now, perhaps, expect that I shall introduce a series of practical deductions from the foregoing facts and observations; but such is not my object upon the present occasion. I merely wish to call the attention of practitioners and the public to the subject of these pages, and shall thus discharge, as I conceive, an imperative duty to society. Having mentioned what I am induced to consider a frequent cause of inflammation of the investing membranes of the brain in children, my undertaking is completed. The Profession does not require, and the public would not be benefited, by the addition of lengthened therapeutical rules; for I am convinced, there is not a greater imposition to be found than the doctrine that non-medical persons can treat diseases with success by means of popular systems of medicine, '_practical_' treatises, &c. Such books have often done irreparable mischief--certainly much more harm than good; and so far from injuring the profits of medical practitioners (as some appear to suppose), have greatly added to the number of their patients.