Note 137 — XV.

The Chinese women are for this reason anxious to keep their children at the breast for two or three years and even longer, partly by way of speculating upon their having a constant breast of milk, and in this singular manner make up for any deficiency of cow's milk, between the market demand and the actual supply. A Chinese who possesses five or six concubines in addition to his legitimate spouse, may thus boast of a regular dairy farm. As sailors on arriving in port are usually excessively fond of milk, which they drink in large quantities, we were not a little amazed on learning from a physician at Hong-kong the source whence in all probability had been derived the milk that was so plentifully supplied!