Parenting advice books of the 18th and 19th century agreed that “the mother’s milk, or that of a healthy nurse, is unquestionably the best food for an infant.” Still, some mothers supplemented or substituted with “dry-nursing”—feeding with a milk and water mixture thickened with a little bread, and often combined with sugar, spices and wine. (Experts frowned on wine and spices, but some condoned sugar.)
A glass bottle fitted with a silver nipple and tube like this one, made or sold by Edward Rockwell in New York City in 1807, might be used to dry-nurse an infant. The nipple would be covered with a bit of leather or cloth to protect the child’s mouth.
The difficult-to-clean apparatus was a breeding ground for germs, which caused many infant illnesses and deaths. Long before knowledge of germs was widespread, it was well known that dry-nursed children survived less frequently than did wet-nursed ones.