child; and the quality may be ascertained by examining the milk, which she may be ordered to pour into a wine glass, about two or three hours after she hath eaten and drank, and suckled her own child. If, when falling in a single drop upon the nail, it runs off immediately, the milk is too thin; if the drop stands in a round globe, it is too thick; but when the drop remains in a flattened form, the milk is judged to be of a right consistence: in a word, it may be as well distinguished by its opacity or transparency, when it is dashed up on the side of the glass: besides, it ought to be sweet to the taste, and in colour inclining to blue rather than to yellow. Red-hair'd women, or such as are very fair and delicate, are commonly objected to in the quality of nurses; but this maxim is not without exceptions: and on this subject, Boerhaave's institutes, with Haller's commentary, may be consulted.