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Amongst the mothers, 22, or 16.5 per cent., did work other than
ordinary housework, and were away from home intermittently, or
entirely, during the day.
Of the 133 children, 43 or 32 per cent. were first babies, 24 or 18
per cent. second, and 66 or 50 per cent. third, or later, children.
Health at time of Admission.—38 or 29 per cent. were
healthy, 56 or 42 per cent. were in poor health, and not making
satisfactory progress, and 33 or 25 per cent. were suffering from
some definite disorder, e.g., diarrhœa and sickness. A number (6 or
4 per cent.) were practically dying.
The inquiries as to feeding elicited important information with
regard to the period for which the infants had been breast fed before
artificial feeding was adopted. This may be best shown as follows:—

Most of the children had had artificial food in some form—milk
and water or barley water, Nestle's milk, etc., for some period before
entering the depôt; 18 had no breast - milk at all prior to admission.
As to the health of the mothers, it was found that 88 (66 per
cent) were healthy, and 41 (30.8 per cent.) weakly or definitely ill.
In 4 cases the mother was dead, or in hospital.
RESULTS.-As to whether or not a child was benefitting was determined
to a certain extent by its weight, and whether it gained or lost.
If the gain was llb. or more per month, the progress was regarded as
good; if there was loss of weight it was bad, and if a gain of less
than 1 lb. unsatisfactory. In the two latter cases, the infant was
placed under closer observation, weighings were made weekly instead
of, as usual, fortnightly, and changes, if indicated, made in the
diet