Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1917 — FEEDING-BOTTLES LONG AGO [ARTICLE]

FEEDING-BOTTLES LONG AGO

Specimens Preserved Show They Constituted, Besides Their Proper Purpose, a Rattle and Picture Book. Possibly a hollow gourd constituted the first babe’s feeding bottle. Torn rfrom its parent tree, its edible interior would have found its way to the stomach of its adult plucker, after which the hollow shell would be filled with milk, CirothKr'Tiqtfitl'refreShment, for the satisfaction of the infant. In tropical countries, again, the coconut would constitute a natural feeding bottle, already filled with the necessary nourishment. Without, however, indulging in speculation of this kind, it may be noted that the archaic vase room at the British museum contains specimens of feeding bottles—-tetinoe, archaeologists call them—dating back to between six and seven hundred years before Christ. These very early babies’’' bottles are usually gobuiar in shape, are elaborately decorated, and are covered with small knobs which, it is conjectured, were used to hang tiny bells upon. In short, the feeding bottle of those days was also a rattle and a picture book combined.