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Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2646, 30 October 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

■ ; - i ... - ■ . should spoil their figures in becoming mothers. If the destruction of a human being in its first inception,’whilst it is being formed, ivhilst it is yet coming to life, and is still in the hands of its artificer, Nature, be deserving of public detestation and horror, is it not nearly as bad to deprive the child of his proper and congenial nutriment to Avhich he is accustomed hoav that he is perfected, is born into the world, is a child?

“But it makes no difference—for as they say — so long as the child is nourished and lives, Avith ivhose milk it is done.

“WliydoeS he Avho says this, since he is so dull in understanding Nature, think it also of no consequence in whoso Avomb and from whose/blood the child is formed and fashioned? For is there not noAv in the breasts the same blood —whitened, it is true, by agration and heat which Avas before in the womb? And is not the Avisdom of Nature to be. seen in this, that as soon as the blood has done its Avork of forming the body down beloAv, and the time of birth has come, it betakes itself to the upper parts of the body, and is ready to cherish the spark of life and light by furnishing to the new-born babe his knoAvn and accustomed food ? An so it is not an idle belief that, just as the strength and character of the seed have their influence in determining the likeness of the body and mind, so do the nature and properties of the milk do their part in effecting the same results. And this has been noticed not in man alone, but in cattle as well. For if kids are brought up on the milk of ewes, or lambs on that of goats, it is agreed that the latter have stiffer wool, the former softer hair. In the case of timber and fruit trees, too, the qualities of the Avater and and soil from which they draAV their nourishment have more influence in stunting or augmenting their groAvth than those of the seed Avhich is soavii, and often you may see a healthy and vigorous tree Avhen transplanted into another place perish oAving to the poverty of the soil. “Is it then, a reasonable thing to corrupt the fine qualities of the neAvborn man, well endoAved as to both j body and mind so far as parentage is (concerned, Avith the unsuitable nourishnnent of degenerate and foreign milk? ( “ . . . And besides these con- ' siderations, Avho can afford to ignore I or belittle the fact that those Avho desert their offspring and send them away from themselves, and make them over to others to nurse, cut, or at least loos- - en and weaken, that chain and connection of mind and affection by AA’hich Nature attaches children to their parents! For when the child, sent elseAvhere, is aAvay from sight the vigor of the maternal solicitude little by- little dies aAvay, and the call of motherly instinct grows silent, and forgetfulness of a child sent aAvay to nurse is not much less complete than that of one lost by death. “ A child’s thoughts and the love he is ever ready to give are occupied, moreover, with her alone ' from Avhom he derives his food, and soon he has neither feeling' nor affection for the mother Avho bore him. The foundations of the filial feelings Avith which Ave are horn being thus sapped and undermined, whatever affection children thus brought lip may seem to have for father and mother for the most part is not natural love, but the result of social convention.”