Indian name of the lac insect. See Lac, Chemistry, and Dyeing Index.

Lactatio, lactation, among medical writers, denotes the giving suck. The mother's breast, if possible, should be allowed the child, at least during the first month; for thus the child is more peculiarly benefited by what it sucks, and the mother is preserved from more real inconveniences than the falsely delicate imagine they would suffer by compliance herewith: but if by reason of an infrangible constitution, or other causes, the mother cannot suckle her child, let dry nursing under the mother's eye be purposed.

When women lose their appetite by giving suck, both the children and themselves are thereby injured; wet nurses are to be preferred, who, during the time they give the breast, have rather an increased appetite, and digest more quickly; the former are apt to waste away, and sometimes die consumptive. In short, those nurses with whom lactation may for a while agree, should wean the child as soon as their appetite lessens, their strength seems to fail, or a tendency to hysterical symptoms is manifest.

When the new born child is to be brought up by the mother's breast, apply it thereto in ten or twelve hours after delivery; thus the milk is sooner and more easily supplied, and there is less hazard of a fever than when the child is not put to it before the milk begins to flow of itself.

If the mother does not suckle her child, her breasts should be kept so warm with flannels, or with a hare skin, that a constant perspiration may be supported; thus there rarely will arise much inconvenience from the milk.

The child, notwithstanding all our care in dry nursing, sometimes pines if a breast is not allowed. In this case a wet nurse should be provided, if possible one that hath not been long delivered of a child. She should be young, of a healthy habit, and an active disposition, a mild temper, and with breasts well filled with milk. If the milk is good, it is sweetish to the taste, and totally free from saltness; to the eye it appears thin, and of a bluish cast. That the woman hath her menstres, if in other respects objections be not made, need not be any; and as to the custom with many, of abstaining from venery while they continue to suckle a child, it is so far without reason to support it, that the truth is, a rigorous chastity is as hurtful, and often more pernicious, than an immoderate use of venery. Amongst the vulgar errors, is that of red-haired women being improper for wet nurses. If the menes do not appear during the first months, but after six or eight months suckling they begin to descend, the child should be weaned.

Wet nurfes should eat at least one hearty meal of animal food every day; with this a proper quantity of vegetables should be mixed. Thin broth or milk are proper for their breakfasts and their suppers; and if the strength should seem to fail a little, a draught of good ale should now and then be allowed; but spirituous liquors must in general be forbidden; not but a spoonful of rum may be allowed in a quart of milk and water, (i.e. a pint of each), which is a proper common drink.

Though it is well observed by Dr Hunter, that the far greater number of those women who have cancers in the breast or womb are old maids, and those who refuse to give suck to their children; yet it is the unhappiness of some willing mothers not to be able: for instance, those with tender constitutions, and who are subject to nervous disorders; those who do not eat a sufficient quantity of solid food, nor enjoy the benefit of exercise and air: if children are kept at their breasts, they either die while young, or are weak and sickly after childhood is past, and so on through remaining life.

Laëntius, Lucius Coelius Firmianus, a celebrated author at the beginning of the 4th century, was, according to Baronius, an African; but, according to others, was born at Permo in the marquisate of Ancona, from whence it is imagined he was called Firmianus. He studied rhetoric under Arnobius; and was afterwards a professor of that science in Africa and Nicomedia, where he was so admired, that the emperor Constantine chose him preceptor to his son Crispus Caesar. Laëntius was so far from seeking the pleasure and riches of the court, that he lived there in poverty, and, according to Eusebius, frequently wanted necessaries. His works are written in elegant Latin. The principal of which are, 1. De ira divina. 2. De operibus Dei, in which he treats of the creation of man, and of divine providence. 3. Divine Institutions, in seven books: this is the most considerable of all his works: he there undertakes to prove the truth of the Christian religion, and to refute all the difficulties that had been raised against it; and he solidly, and with great strength, attacks the illusions of Paganism. His style is pure, clear, and natural, and his expressions noble and elegant, which account he has been called the Cicero of the Christians. There is also attributed to him a treatise De morte persecutorum; but several of the learned doubt its being written by Laëntius. The most copious edition of Laëntius's works is that of Paris in 1748, 2 vols. 4to.