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Depôts it seems almost impossible to suggest a statistical
method which is not beset with fallacies. Certain figures which
have been given lately in reference to some of the French
Depôts prove little save the dangers attending the application
of numerical methods to vital phenomena. In my last Annual
Report I ventured to offer some figures which, with
qualifications, appeared to me to be suggestive, but
unfortunately these were used in the public press as a basis
for exaggerated statements which can only do harm to the
work of the Depot. For these reasons I do not propose to
offer any figures until sufficient material has been collected for
a conclusive statement to be made. But it must not be
supposed that evidence in favour of the milk is lacking. The
medical testimony already quoted fully justifies the action of
the Council in establishing the Depot.
The best method of investigation, however, appears to be
that adopted by Drs. Park and Holt in their enquiry into the
methods of infant feeding in the tenement houses in New York
during 1901-2. In this investigation a number of children fed
on different kinds of food were periodically weighed and kept
under observation by competent medical observers, and the
results obtained with each variety of food compared. This
enquiry appeared to show that the best results were obtained
from the milk supplied at the Milk Depots which have been
established in the poorer districts of New York by the
generosity and public spirit of the Hon. Nathan Straus, and
which are conducted on similar lines to the Battersea Depot.
"Of the methods of feeding now in vogue, that by milk from
central distributing stations unquestionably possesses the most
advantages in that it secures some constant oversight of the
child, and since it furnishes the food in such a form that it
leaves the mother least to do it gives her the smallest
opportunity for going wrong. This method of feeding is one
which deserves to be much more extensively employed, and
might, in the absence of private philanthropy, wisely be
undertaken by municipalities, and continued for the four
months from May 15th to September 15th. The use, for
infants, of milk delivered in sealed bottles should be encouraged