The Bible contains various allusions to the tender and confidential relation anciently subsisting between a nurse and the children she had brought up, Isaiah 49:22,23 1 Thessalonians 2:7,8. See also the story of Rebekah, attended through life by her faithful and honored Deborah, the oak under which she was buried being called "The oak of weeping," Genesis 24:59 35:8. The custom still prevails in the better families of Syria and India. Says Roberts in his Oriental Illustrations, "how often have scenes like this led my mind to the patriarchal age. The daughter is about for the first time to leave the paternal roof; the servants are all in confusion; each refers to things long gone by, each wishes to do something to attract the attention of his young mistress. One says, ‘Ah do not forget him who nursed you when an infant;’ another, ‘How often did I bring you the beautiful lotus from the distant tank. Did I not always conceal your faults?’ Then the mother comes to take leave. She weeps and tenderly embraces her, saying, ‘My daughter, I shall see you no more; forget not your mother.’ The brother enfolds his sister in his arms, and promises soon to come and see her. The father is absorbed in thought, and is only aroused by the sobs of the party. He then affectionately embraces his daughter, and tells her not to fear. The female domestics must each smell of the poor girl, and the men touch her feet. As Rebekah had her nurse to accompany her, so, at this day, the aya (nurse) who has from infancy brought up the bride goes with her to the new scene. She is her adviser, her assistant and friend, and to her will she tell all her hopes and all her fears."

NURSE, n.

1. A woman that has the care of infants, or a woman employed to tend the children of others.

2. A woman who suckles infants.

3. A woman that has the care of a sick person.

4. A man who has the care of the sick.

5. A person that breeds, educates or protects; hence, that which breeds, brings up or causes to grow; as Greece, the nurse of the liberal arts.

6. An old woman; in contempt.

7. The state of being nursed; as, to put a child to nurse.

8. In composition, that which supplies food; as a nurse-pond.

NURSE, v.t.

1. To tend, as infants; as, to nurse a child.

2. To suckle; to nourish at the breast.

3. To attend and take care of in child-bed; as, to nurse a woman in her illness.

4. To tend the sick; applied to males and females.

5. To ffed; to maintain; to bring up. Isaiah 60.

6. To cherish; to foster; to encourage; to promote growth in. We say, to nurse a feeble animal or plant.

By what hands has vice been nursed into so uncontrolled a dominion?

7. To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase; as, to nurse our national resources.

In ancient times the position of the nurse, wherever one was maintained, was one of much honor sad importance. See (Genesis 24:59; 36;8; 2 Samuel 4:4; 2 Kings 11:2) The same term is applied to a foster-father or mother, e.g. (Numbers 11:12; Ruth 4:16; Isaiah 49:23)