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child that is fed on its mother's milk, other things being equal,
invariably thrives. It is imbibing the nourishment designed
by nature to suit its particular requirement, and free from risks
of contamination. It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that
infants fed on the breast are rarely attacked by diarrhoea, which,
as we have already seen, is one of the three chief causes of a
high infantile mortality. This has been expressed in a very
practical manner, by comparing the greater probability of death
from epidemic diarrhoea—viz., 48 and 94 to 1 respectively—
among infants fed on cows' milk and condensed milk than among
those fed on breast milk. The value of breast milk for infants is
inestimable. Unfortunately, owing to various causes, this,
especially in urban communities, is frequently a counsel of perfection,
and recourse has to be had to substitutes more or less
suitable. Cows' milk, suitably modified for the requirements
of the infant at different age periods, is the nearest approach
to its natural food that perhaps can be readily obtained; but,
unfortunately, owing to the great risks to which cows' milk is
exposed to contamination in its passage from the farm to
the consumer—risks, it should be remembered, largely preventable
were Sanitary Authorities invested by Parliament with
more adequate powers of control than they at present possess—
its value in this respect is seriously discounted. Milk is a
pabulum for almost all pathogenic germs, and, in the present
unsatisfactory conditions under which it is sold to the public, it
is frequently the source of danger to the infant. Bearing these
facts in mind, the question of providing a supply of pure cows'
milk, suitably modified, was carefully considered by the Health
Committee of the Council in 1901. The Committee reported to
the Council that, after a careful enquiry, they were of opinion
that improper and unsuitable feeding was to a large extent
responsible for the high infant mortality which had for years
prevailed in the Borough, and that the establishment of an
Infants' Milk Depot, somewhat on the lines of those which had
been so successfully in operation in France, would tend, in
their opinion, to reduce this heavy death-rate. The Council
adopted the report of the Committee, and resolved to establish
an Infants' Milk Dep6t.