Discussion: Wet Nurse’s Milk or Mother’s Milk

The question of whether early modern mothers should nurse their children themselves or employ a wet nurse for this task reveals a clear divergence between social practice and medical theory. While it was common practice for the middle and upper classes in society on the Iberian Peninsula to hire a wet nurse to care for an infant, the physicians of the time never tired of stressing that nursing by the biological mother was always preferable to nursing by a wet nurse. The physician Juan Alonso y de los Ruyzes de Fontecha (1560 – 1620) adopts a clear position in his publicationDiez previlegios para mugeres preñadas.¹⁵⁰

Born in Daimiel, a village in the La Mancha region, Fontecha first studied medicine in Alcalá de Henares. There he also held the Chair of Medicine before he was appointed to the University of Bologna. His work on the ten privileges for pregnant women is dedicated to his patron, Doña Juana de Velasco y Aragón, Duchess of Gandia, Marquise of Lombay and Countess of Oliva.¹⁵¹ Unlike many of his colleagues, Ruyzes de Fontecha conveys an extremely positive image of women and is not afraid to question an authority from Antiquity such as Aristotle.

This can be seen above all in his conception of procreation where the physician ascribes an active role to women contrary to the common Aristotelian-influenced views. Furthermore, he categorically rejects Aristotle’s assumption of the natural imperfection of the female sex, the woman as imperfect man.

In his conception of procreation, Aristotle objected to the two-semen theory, which assumed a female and a male sperm that would combine with each other during conception. Galen advocated such a theory on the basis of Hippocrates. Aristotle, by contrast, sees the male sperm and the female menstrual blood as responsible for procreation. He defines the sperm as actively shaping (form), while the menstrual blood passively delivers the substance (matter). The sperm plays the decisive role in the formation of the embryo. Aristotle also saw this in the general difference between man and woman, as postulated by him, since he assumed that woman was given a smaller share of innate warmth than man. For perfect procreation, the child would have to be male and exactly like the father. In the case of variations, which Aristotle already interprets as malformations, the strength of the sperm is weakened by the menstrual blood. Thus, woman, according to Aristotle, can be defined as a malformation, which, however, is indispensable for the survival of mankind.¹⁵²

Interestingly, Ruyzes de Fontecha refutes Aristotle on the basis of Aristotle by comparing different texts of the philosopher. Specifically, he cites chapters 10 and 11 of theMetaphysicsin order to take ideas from De generatione animalium and reduce them ad absurdum. In this context, it should be emphasized that the Aristotelian conception of procreation in De generatione animalium still belonged to the canon of common doctrines at the time of Ruyzes de Fontecha. It is precisely

150 Ten Privileges for Pregnant Women.

151 Unfortunately, it is not possible to exactly reconstruct her date of birth and death, but she made a statement on the question of elevating Teresa of Ávila to a saint in 1609. Teresa of ÁVILA: Escritos de Santa Teresa II, Biblioteca de autores españoles 55, Madrid: 1879, Número 10, 380 –381.

152 Erna LESKY: Die Zeugungs- und Vererbungslehren der Antike und ihr Nachwirken, Abhandlungen der Geistes-und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse Jahrgang 1950, no. 19, Wiesbaden 1951, in regard to Aristotle, see 1349 – 1383, in regard to Galen, see 1402– 1403.

this circumstance that may have prompted the Spanish physician to pursue his strategy of a self -refutation of Aristotle. Accordingly, he states the following:

“It shows that the relationship of the mother to the child must be based on active potency:

that the mother is the point of reference for the child is also found in Aristotelian doctrine, in books 10 and 11 of Metaphysics. What can be clearly concluded is that since there is only one specific relationship in a child and this relationship cannot have more than two endpoints, the mother actively contributes to the procreation, through active potency, like the father.

And so she remains a perfect principle otherwise in nature and for procreation and not faulty and imperfect.”¹⁵³

Fontecha uses the specific relationship of the mother to the child developing in her womb as the main argument. By pointing out that a relationship strictly cannot comprise more than two endpoints, the author emphasizes that the man at this point is completely excluded from the re-lationship. Consequently, according to Fontecha, he can no longer appear as an active part in this context. However, in accordance with this theory, since there must be activity – after all, this can be clearly observed during the course of the pregnancy due to the swelling of the abdomen, the external and thus evident sign of a developing fetus – only the woman herself remains for active potency.

By conceding such an autonomous, independent power, the physician can subsequently define the female sex as a perfect principle of nature and thus also a perfect principle of procreation.

Ruyzes de Fontecha deviates considerably from the Aristotelian approach. In her dissertation on ancient doctrines of procreation and heredity, Erna Lesky, unlike her predecessors, was able to show that in Aristotle himself, even in his main work on the theory of procreation,De generatione animalium,¹⁵⁴ there are passages in which he deviates from his strict juxtaposition of form and matter and grants an active power of movement to the female menstrual blood,¹⁵⁵but by no means to the extent that Ruyzes de Fontecha presents it in his remarks.

Not only with regard to procreation, but also in terms of the usefulness of a wet nurse, the mother-child relationship is at the center of the physician’s argumentation. In this regard, Ruyzes de Fontecha refers to a passage from the bookDe hominis generationeby the famous French surgeon Ambroise Paré (1509?– 1590). This says that the wet nurse’s milk gives the child not only the necessary nutrition, but also itsmores, that is, character or customs.

Since Antiquity it had been assumed in natural philosophical and medical circles that the char-acter of a person was mainly dependent on the physical constellation, but also on the external

153 “Queda que la relacion, que dize la madre al hijo, se ha de fundar en la potencia activa: que la madre sea referida al hijo, tiene fundamento tambien en la doctrina de Aristoteles, en el 10. y. 11. de la Methaphysica. De donde se sigue claramente, que como en el hijo no aya mas de una relacion especifica, y esta no pueda tener dos terminos en rigor, que la madre concurre a la generacion activamente, mediante potencia activa, como el padre, y assi queda, como principio perfecto, y no como defectuoso, é imperfecto en la naturaleza, y para la generacion.” Juan Alonso y de los RUYZES DE FONTECHA: Diez previlegios para mugeres preñadas, Alcalá de Henares: Por Luys Martynez Grande, 1606, 18r – 18v.

154 Generation of Animals.

155 LESKY: Die Zeugungs- und Vererbungslehren der Antike und ihr Nachwirken (see n. 152), 1376 –1377.

circumstances, above all nutrition and climatic conditions. According to those circles, heredity as well as the environment and education therefore play an important role in a person’s character. The fact that these areas were closely connected with each other is impressively demonstrated by the theory of character influence by wet nurse’s milk.

The physician Galen (129 – 216 CE), whose ancient writings significantly influenced early modern medicine, even wrote his own treatise titledQuod animi mores corporis temperamenta sequantur¹⁵⁶on the problem of the relationship between character and bodily humors. The medical historian Luis García Ballester commented and translated Galen’s treatise into Spanish. He believes that Galen binds the character of man and thus his moral qualities to the constitution of the body, i.e. above all to the constellation of humors, which forms the basis of Galen’s Humoralism:

“He [Galen] made the moral life and all mental manifestations of man dependent on the constitution of the body, viewed from the physiological conceptions of the humoral doctrine.

This is the thesis that he tries to present and prove throughout the treatiseQuod animi mores corporis temperamenta sequantur.”¹⁵⁷

According to Galen’s theory, character is determined by complexion, the composition of the four body humors. Galen speaks of the fact that “[…] the actions and affects of the soul are a consequence of the temperaments of the body.”¹⁵⁸ Complexion, in turn, is congenital on the one hand, but also considerably influenced by the environment on the other:

“Unless it is assumed, for example, that the soul of man can become better or worse through the winds and warmth and cold of the air surrounding them, as well as through the properties of water and nutrition, the aforementioned circumstances would not cause good and bad qualities of the soul on the way through the bodily temperaments, since these too are a consequence of the prudence of men. But we know exactly that every food is first swallowed down into the stomach, pre-digested in it and then absorbed by the vessels leading from the liver to it and forms the humors of the body through which all other parts are nourished and thus also the brain, heart and liver. In the course of this nourishment process, however, they become warmer, colder or moister than usual by adapting to the essence of the humors that predominate. Therefore, those who do not want to accept that nutrition can make some more prudent, others more unrestrained, some more controlled, others more uncontrolled, should accept the reasoning now that nutrition can produce boldness and cowardice, gentleness and

156 That the qualities of the mind depend on the temperament of the body.

157 “Hizo depender [Galen] la vida moral y todas las manifestaciones psíquicas del hombre del estado del cuerpo, visto este desde los esquemas fisiológicos de la doctrina humoral. Esta es la tesis que intentara exponer y demostrar a todo lo largo del tratadoQuod animi mores corporis temperamenta sequantur.” GARCÍA BALLESTER: Alma y enfermedad en la obra de Galeno (see n. 95), 101.

158 Translation by Henry Whittlesey Schroeder from German translation by Erika Hauke: GALEN: Daß die Vermögen der Seele eine Folge der Mischungen des Körpers sind, trans. by Erika HAUKE, reprint Nendeln, Liechtenstein 1977 (first edition Berlin 1937), 18; “[…] functiones animi et affectus corporis imitari temperamentum […].”GALENUS:

Opera omnia, vol. 4, Hildesheim 1964, 787.

mildness, bellicosity and jealousy, and they should come to me to learn what they must eat and what they must drink.”¹⁵⁹

Galen thus vehemently rejects the theory that the environment has a direct influence on the human soul. Using nutrition as an example, he explains that this alone determines complexion.

In his reasoning, nutrition is processed and then actively influences the composition of the four bodily humors. The humors, in turn, influence the character. In Galen’s theory, physical complexion assumes a mediating position between environment and character.

The fact that the early modern physicians were quite familiar with Galen’s writings can be proven by the example of the physician Juan Gutiérrez de Godoy (1579 – 1656), who writes in his treatise published in 1629 and titledTres discursos para provar que estan obligadas a criar sus hijos a sus pechos todas las madres:¹⁶⁰

“I would like to prove that the inclinations and good or bad customs gain access [to the child]

through the milk. […] To extract this truth from its roots and foundations, it is necessary to assume as Galen that the inclinations and good or bad customs are accounted for by the temperance of the body. Thus, he proves it in detail with Aristotle and Plato in a book that he wrote only to provide this proof, and the title is: Quod animi mores temperaturam [sic]

sequuntur.”¹⁶¹

Galen’s writing apparently had a strong influence on Gutiérrez de Godoy. Accordingly, he quotes the title of the work right in the body of his text and not only in a gloss – as he usually does – addressing chapter seven of the work in particular and treating it at length.

159 Translation by Henry Whittlesey Schroeder from the German translation by Hauke: GALEN: Daß die Vermögen der Seele eine Folge der Mischungen des Körpers sind (see n. 158), 30; “ Jam vero sunt qui negent, propter ventos, aëris ambientis caliditatem frigiditatemque et aquarum ac alimenti naturam homines praestantiorem atque pejorem ani-mum acquirere posse; ab his vero ipsis, non intervenientibus corporis temperamentis, bona et mala in animo effici;

haec namque virorum prudentiam consequuntur. Verum illud nos clare novimus, scilicet alimentum quodque primo in ventriculum quidem demitti ac in eo prius confici, postea vero per venas ex hepate ad ipsum pertinentes attractum humores in corpore creare, ex quibus reliqua membra et una cum ipsu cerebrum, cor et jecur nutriuntur. At inter alendum calidiores quam prius evadunt, frigidiores et humidiores, dum facultati humorum praepollentium assimi-lantur. Saltem nunc ad mentem redeant, qui diffculter admittunt, nutrimentum efficere posse hos temperantiores, illos dissolutos magis, alios incontinentes, nonnullos frugales, confidentes, meticulosos, mansuetos, modestos et contentionis ac rixae studiosos, veniantque ad me audituri, quae ipsos edere, quae item potare conveniat.” GALENUS:

Opera omnia (see n. 158), 807 –808.

160 Three Discourses to prove that All Mothers must nurse their Children themselves.

161 “Quiero pues provar que las inclinaciones, y costumbres buenas o malas se introduzen con la leche. […] Para sacar en limpio esta verdad de sus rayzes, y fundamentos, es necessario suponer con Galenos, que las inclinaciones, y costumbres buenas ò malas, sigun la templança del cuerpo: assi lo prueva largamente con Aristoteles, y con Platon en un libro que hizo, solo para provar este intento, y es su titulo.Quod animi mores corporis temperaturam [sic]

sequuntur.” Juan de GUTIÉRREZ DE GODOY: Tres discursos para provar que estan obligadas a criar sus hijos a sus pechos todas las madres quando tienen buena salud, fuerças, y buen temperamento, buena leche, y suficiente para alimentarlos, Jaen: Por Pedro de la Cuesta, 1629, 91v – 92r.

Antiquity’s idea of a transfer of character through wet nurse’s milk illustrates the close connection between the factors of environment, complexion and character. “The wet nurse must be well-mannered at the same time.”¹⁶²Paré puts it briefly and succinctly in a gloss of his bookDe hominis generatione¹⁶³ and states further in the accompanying text: “She has to be well-mannered because the customs of the wet nurses are transferred to the infants together with the milk.”¹⁶⁴ In the first edition of this book, which is written in French, the wet nurse’s influence is emphasized even more clearly in the corresponding chapter when Paré stresses:

“She [the wet nurse] should be well-behaved and well-mannered because the child has received so much character, after his father and mother, from their wet nurse on account of the milk that they drank. […].”¹⁶⁵

Since, according to Paré, the wet nurse has the greatest influence on the child after the parents, it is not surprising that her personality was given a high priority when assessing her suitability. The Majorcan physician Damián Carbón († 1554) even goes a little further with this idea by stressing that the wet nurse’s influence on the child’s personality, the child’s costumbres, should be valued more highly than that of their parents. Therefore, the author of a midwife handbook relies on the authority of Avicenna (980 – 1037) and explains as follows:

“And therefore the text says that it was forbidden for a foolish woman to nurse. And it also says that a child gets more from the wet nurse’s customs than from the father’s or mother’s.

And so it is necessary to be careful that the wet nurse is well-mannered and discreet.”¹⁶⁶ Compared to Paré’s point of view, the wet nurse is thus given a much higher priority than the parents with regard to influencing the child’s character. Carbón finds prominent company with this idea. The Hispanist Carolyn Nadeau shows that the Mirror for PrincesRelox de Príncipes(1529)¹⁶⁷ by Antonio de Guevara (1481 – 1545), which was popular at that time, classified the influence of the wet nurse as higher than that of the mother. Nadeau sums up her findings by stating:

“This conclusion reiterates one of Guevara’s major points in his introductory remarks on breastfeeding, that the impact of nurturance outweighs the effects of nature.”¹⁶⁸

162 “Qualiter moratam nutricem debeat.” Ambroise PARÉ: Opera Ambrosii Parei Regis Primarii et Parisiensis Chirurgi, Paris, 1582, URL: ark:/12148/cb37251411q (visited on 27/02 /2019), 690.

163 On the Procreation of Mankind.

164 “Bene morata sit, quia nutricum mores unà cum lacte in natos abeunt.” PARÉ: Opera Ambrosii Parei Regis Primarii et Parisiensis Chirurgi (see n. 162), 690.

165 “Semblablement qu’elle [la nourrice] soit sage, & bien morigeree, car l’enfant ne tire tant du naturel à personne, apres le pere & la mere, que de sa nourriçe, à raison du lait qui tette […].” Ambroise PARÉ: Deux livres de chirurgie, de la génération de l’homme, & manière d’extraire les enfans hors du ventre de la mère, Paris, 1573, URL: ark : /12148/bpt6k53958h (visited on 27/02 /2019), 110 –111.

166 “Y por esso dize el texto. Fue prohibida la estolida no diesse a mamar y mas dize que mas trae las costumbres el niño de la ama que del padre ni de la madre / y por esso es de mucho mirar que sea bien morigerada y discreta.”

Damián CARBÓN: Libro del arte de las Comadres o madrinas y del regimiento de las preñadas y paridas y de los niños, Valencia 2000 (first edition Mallorca 1541), LVIr.

167 Dial of Princes.

168 NADEAU: Blood Mother/ Milk Mother (see n. 145), 167.

This greater importance placed on nursing as compared to the influence of procreation and birth leads Carbón to conclude that the wet nurse’s character should also be taken into consideration all the more carefully. Interestingly, the authors use the adjectivemorigereeormorigeradaderived from the Latinmorigerari, that is, morem gerere, a word that is hardly used in writings otherwise, to describe the wet nurse’s ideal character. With this choice of words, which already literally contains themores, the customs, and the corresponding additionbien, that is, good, they refer unmistakably to the conceptions of medical character study.

Examples from the animal world are then cited by Paré as proof of a transfer of the temper through the wet nurse’s milk. In fact, he argued that young puppies raised by wolves, for example, are wilder, and the fur of goats fed by sheep is harder, while in reverse the wool of lambs is softened by a goat as wet nurse. Drawing on the animal world for argumentative support is an approach found, among others, in the theologian and physician Blas Álvarez Miravall, who cites the breeding of dogs in his workThe Preservation of Health, with reference to the late-antique Roman author Columella († c. 70 CE):

“There are many statements by influential authors regarding the great energy and effectiveness that the good milk of one’s own mother has to raise her children and make them intelligent and well-mannered. Accordingly, we discover that it [the mother’s milk] has the same power in all other animals as Columella teaches in book seven, De re rustica, in chapter twelve, where he says: We do not allow the dogs that we want to be of good temper and generous

“There are many statements by influential authors regarding the great energy and effectiveness that the good milk of one’s own mother has to raise her children and make them intelligent and well-mannered. Accordingly, we discover that it [the mother’s milk] has the same power in all other animals as Columella teaches in book seven, De re rustica, in chapter twelve, where he says: We do not allow the dogs that we want to be of good temper and generous