Notice of ancient "feeding bottles" for infants (one containing remains of milk, recently presented to the Museum of the Society) : with notes of the discovery of similar vessels in Gallo-Roman graves, and instances of their occurrence in England / by John Alexander Smith.

Date:: [1871?]

Credit: Notice of ancient "feeding bottles" for infants (one containing remains of milk, recently presented to the Museum of the Society) : with notes of the discovery of similar vessels in Gallo-Roman graves, and instances of their occurrence in England / by John Alexander Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$Chaque s.^pulture un peu notable s'annongait de loin par une veritable masse de cailloux. Ces pierres, soit par hasard, soin k dessein, eteient re- tombees sur les vases et presqne toujours les avaient grandement fractures ; c'^tait la ce qui rendait si difficile I'extraction des objets presses entre plusieurs silex. Nous n'avons jamais eu I'occasion de remarquer axlleurs une aussi orande abondance de silex taill^s, disposes autour de sepultures romaines pour les preserver. iTous en avons ^galement rencontr6 k Cany et k Encamp, mais en nioins grande quantity.—Pp. 76, 77.^ In the Journal of the British Archseological Association for June 1810 the first paper is an interesting one On Early Tetm^, by H. Syer Cuminc Esq., one of the Vice-Presidents of the Association, and also a Fellow'of our Society. Mr Syer Cuming says, In this country and abroad many antique vessels of terra cotta have been discovered which were for- merly regarded as oil cruses for the service of lamps; but which are now accepted as infants' feeding bottles, upon which the title of tetu.. ha been bestowed. Mr Cuming finds what he considers specimens of the^ vessels among the Greek fictile vases in the British Museum dating from Tout 700 to 500 B.C. One of these has its mouth protected by a s ramer t has also a spout and handle set at right angles to each other. A vesse Ipparently somewhat similar in character to this one but probably of Eoman red-ware, is in our Scottish Museum of Antiqu ties; i is 2| inches broTd by 2i incLs high. From its very smaU size it is rather difficult to believe it to have been intended for a feeding bottle. There is also in our M^eum another still smaUer vessel of reddish ware with a black glaze wMch has a handle on one side and a nipple-like spout ; but he vesse „all, measuring 2 inches in height, and the opening of the spout is lZ\o that it rather suggests the probabiHty of its having been used as a smaS lamp. In the true feeding bottles, I may state the httle spout seems rmmonly to rise from the middle or lower paxt of the vessel, while in IL vase or supposed lamp it springs mainly from the upper part. mTyer Cu^g refers to a curious vessel shaped hke a cow and having a t^uie projectL at its hinder part, which was found ong ago m Si UV L was figured in Akerman's Repository of Arts, vol. n., pi. 23 From i fpeculiar'shape, and the teat-like projectuig spout, 1- —^^^^^ was probably intended to hold milk, and to be really a feeduig bottle. He$