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Quote 169 of 521

In Paris in 1780, of 21,000 registered births, only 5 per cent were
nursed by their mothers. Most of the rest were sent to the countryside
to be wet-nursed by still poorer women. Mortality among babies was so
high that wet-nurses were called 'angelmakers'. Many men inveighed
against the practice. In fact, the chosen name of our class of animals
- Mammalia - originates in Linnaeus's campaign for women to nurse
their children at their own breasts, at a time when most of his own
circle did not do so.

Alison Jolly
		   http://www.booksunlimited.co.uk/lrb/articles/0,6109,349719,00.html

Tags: wetnurses manymen births mortality countryside breasts nurse babies paris animals