Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t2.14

c4.t2.14

¹⁰ The Mugapakkha Jātaka, VI, p. 3, notices the faults and merits of nurses. "If a child drinks milk, sitting on the hip of a nurse who is too tall, its neck will become too long; if it sits on the hip of one too short, its shoulder bone will be compressed; if the nurse be too thin the baby's thighs will ache; if too stout, the babe will become bow-legged; the body of a very dark nurse is too cold, of one very white is too hot; the children who drink the milk of a nurse with hanging breasts have the ends of their noses flattened, some nurses have their milk sour, others have it bitter." Cf. also, J., VI, p. 488. All this shows at least some scientific knowledge, no doubt.