And since Giovanni knew how important it is to rear infants, not with
the milk of nurses, but with that of their own mothers, no sooner was
Raphael born, to whom with happy augury he gave that name at baptism,
than he insisted that this his only child--and he had no more
afterwards--should be suckled by his own mother...
(Giorgio Vasari. Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors and
architects. Random House 1959. original Italian first published 1550)

Where, boundless nature, can I hold you fast?
and where you breasts? Wells that sustain
All life--the heaven and the earth are nursed.

The child, offered the mother's breast,
Will not in the beginning grab it;
But soon it clings to it with zest.
And thus at wisdom's copious breasts
You'll drink each day with greater zest.

(Both from Faust, by Goethe)

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC