A Wet nurse is a woman who gives nurse to a child, and who takes responsibility for the raising of the child in its first years.

The conditions necessary to a good wet nurse are normally considered to be her age, the amount of time since she has given birth, the constitution of her body, particularly her breasts, the nature of her milk, and finally, her morals.

The prime age for a wet nurse is between twenty to twenty-five years and thirty-five to forty years of age. For the amount of time since she has given birth, one must prefer new milk from fifteen to twenty days over that of three or four months. It is most essential that she has a healthy body. She must be mentally sound, of firm health and of good temperament; not too fat, nor too thin. Her breasts must be whole, without scars, medium firm and fleshy; full enough to contain a sufficient quantity of milk, without being too large with excess. The nipples of the breasts must not be too big, hard, calloused, sunken; on the contrary, they must be slightly lifted, of medium size and firmness, well pierced with several holes so that the child does not have too much difficulty in sucking or pressing with his mouth. Her milk should be neither too watery nor too thick, but should flow gently in the proportion with which one inclines the hand, leaving the place from which it flows slightly tinted. It must be very white in colour, with a sweet and soft flavour, without any strange flavour other than that of milk. Finally, to speak of the personal characteristics of the wet nurse , she must be vigilant, wise, prudent, sweet, happy, gay, serious and moderate in her penchant for love.

The wet nurse who meets all or most of these conditions of which we have just been speaking will be very capable of giving excellent nutrition to the child who is entrusted to her. It is most important that she be free from all those sad illnesses that can be communicated to the child. We have seen too many examples of the communication of illnesses from wet nurse to child. We have seen entire villages infected with venereal disease that a few sick wet nurses have communicated by giving their children to other women to nurse.

If mothers nursed their own babies, it appears that they would be stronger and more vigorous: mother's milk would suit them better than the milk of another woman, because the fetus nourishes itself in the womb with a milk-like substance which is very similar to the milk which comes from the breasts: the child is therefore already, in other words, accustomed to the milk of his mother, such that the milk of a wet nurse is a new form of nourishment for him, and is sometimes so different from the first that he is unable to accustom himself to it; because we see children who are unable to accustom themselves to the milk of certain women: they grow thinner, they languish and become ill; as soon as this becomes apparent, it is time to acquire another wet nurse . If one does not pay attention to this, the child will die in very short order.

Independent of the normal rapport between the child and the mother, the mother is definitely more appropriate to take tender care of her child, than a hired woman who is only motivated by recompense of a mercenary nature, often reasonable. Let us conclude that a child's mother, even if she is not as good a wet nurse , is still preferable to a stranger. Plutarch and Aulu-Gelle proved long ago that it is very rare that the mother is unable to nourish her own child. I do not say, in accordance with the church fathers, that every mother who refuses to nurse her child is a barbaric step-mother, but I believe that by allowing themselves to be seduced by luxury, they will take the less advantageous route for the good of their children. Wasn't it thus that Roman women, as Julius Caesar said after his return from Gaul, no longer had any infants to feed nor to carry in their arms; I only see dogs and monkeys? This facetious jest proves that the abandonment of one's children to unknown wet nurses can only have its origin in the corruption of morals.

In Turkey, after the death of the father of the family, one collects three percent of all the wealth of the deceased; one makes seven lots of the rest, of which two are for the widow, three for the male children and two for the female children; but if the widow has nursed her own children, she also receives a third of the five remaining lots. Behold a good law to adopt in our civilized nations.