Goats as Wet-nurses.

No. 211 - THE PENNY MAGAZINE - July 18, 1835

Goats as Wet-nurses.--It is ordinary, all about where I live, to see the countrywomen, when they want suck of their own, to call goats to their assistance. And I have, at this hour, two footmen that never sucked woman's milk more than eight days after they were born. These goats are immediately taught to come to suckle the little children, well knowing their voices when they cry, and come running to them; when, if any other than that they are acquainted with be presented to the, they refuse to let it suck, and the child, to any other goat, will do the same. I saw one the other day, from whom they had taken away the goat that used to nourish it (by reason the father had only borrowed it of a neighbour) that would not touch any other they could bring, and doubtless died of hunger.--Montaigne's Essays: Cotton's Translation, 1711.