in our ancient customs, implied an oath, taken by a person guilty of felony, and who had fled to a place of sanctuary, whereby he solemnly engaged to leave the kingdom for ever.

Abjuration, is now used to signify the renouncing, disclaiming, and denying upon oath, the Pretender to have any kind of right to the crown of these kingdoms.

Abjuration of heresy, the solemn recantation of any doctrine as false and wicked.

ABLACTATION, or weaning a child from the breast. If the mother or nurse has enough of milk, a child will need little or no other food before the second or third month of its age; when it will be proper to give it, once or twice a-day, a little water-pap; and as it grows older, it may be fed oftener, and have its panada sometimes mixed with milk. This will accustom the child by degrees to take food, and will render the weaning both less difficult and less dangerous. Weaning, unless when ailments, weaknesses, or such like circumstances, forbid, ought generally to take place about the fifth or seventh month, at farthest by the ninth or tenth. The child ought then to be fed four or five times a-day; but should never be accustomed to eat in the night. The food should be simple and light; not spoiled with sugar, wine, and such like additions, for they produce the diseases that children are most troubled with. Unfermented flour makes a vicious food that turns sour before it digests, and well fermented bread soon turns sour; but if the panada made of this latter be given new, the inconvenience of souring is prevented. To prevent acidity in the child's stomach by a daily use of vegetable food, give now and then a little fresh broth, made from either veal, mutton, or beef. Rice is not so apt to turn sour as wheat bread is; it therefore would be a more convenient food for children, and deserves to be attended to. Toasted bread boiled in water till it is almost dry, then mixed with fresh milk not boiled, is an agreeable change.

As the teeth advance, the diet may increase in its solidity. As to the quantity, let the appetite be the measure of it; observing to satisfy hunger, but no more; which may be thus managed, Feed the child no longer than he eats with a degree of eagerness: but children may at all times be allowed good light bread to chew as much as they please. Butter ought by all means to be denied them; as it both relaxes the stomach, and produces gross humours. In place of this, let them be used as early as possible with honey; which is cooling, cleansing, tends to sweeten the humours, prevents or destroys worms, and renders children less subject to scabbed head and other cutaneous disorders. In feeding, let the child be held in a sitting posture, and that until the stomach has nearly digested its contents; the too common practice of violently dancing and shaking the child should be avoided. Divert it during the day as much as possible, which will make it sleep soundly all the night. Never awaken a child when it is asleep, for thus sicknesses and peevishnesses are often produced.