As late as the 19th century it was common practice to use goats as a wet nurse for human infants.
An 18th-century account Valenze found of a hospital in Aix, France:
The cribs are arranged in a large room in 2 ranks. Each goat which comes to feed enters bleating and goes to hunt the infant which has been given it, pushes back the covering with its horns and straddles the crib to give suck to the infant. Since that time they have raised very large numbers in that hospital.
(From The Daily Beast, appropriately enough.)
This may possibly explain why the female is called a “Nanny Goat”.
*****
In other news, it seems that a pair of Queen Victoria’s bloomers sold at auction for 9,735 pounds.
The identity of the winning bidder was not disclosed.
Photo from bbc.co.uk
*****
Meanwhile the Republican Senate minority filibustered the infrastructure jobs bill, effectively killing it in its current form. In the House however, they managed in a flurry of activity to re-affirm that “In God We Trust” is still the national motto.
Presumably this means we are to trust that God will create new jobs as they show absolutely no inclination to do so.
Be seeing you.
- Guns…And Other Four Letter Words - February 9, 2013
- She Walks Among Us - January 27, 2013
- Notes From The Belly Of The Beast - October 21, 2012
