Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/104

 create febrile disturbance, and alter the colour of the stools in a few hours; in another, occasion diarrhœa and vomiting; in a third, serious spasmodic affections. But, should the eruption re-appear, all these symptoms very frequently vanish, and the child is reinstated in its usual health. This reciprocation is familiar to every experienced observer. It seems as if the right performance of the functions of the viscera depended on the determination of a certain quantity of blood to the papillæ of the skin. There may exist some peculiarity in the structure of an infant's skin, that may especially adapt it for the reception of the superfluous parts of the blood, as often as it is disproportionate to the wants of the system. Such contrivance would be in perfect unison with the many merciful provisions made by unerring wisdom, to meet the special wants of helpless infancy; for every part of the human frame, at man's entrance into the world, is full of prospective contrivances. Take the teeth as an illustration, which are formed within the gums, and there stop, as their further development would incommode the process of sucking, by which the infant is for some time to be nourished. The milk itself too. It is secreted just at the moment it is wanted, and, above all, is found to contain those ingredients that are best adapted for infantile aliment. No substitute is equal to a healthy mother's milk. Its properties seem to undergo some alteration with the age of the child; any irregularity of diet, or ill health of the mother, affects its salubrity. Every thing indicates a special provision for a special contingency. We all know how readily cow's milk coagulates on the