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is found that where there are three surviving only 9 per cent. of
the last born are exclusively hand-fed; where there are two
surviving only 11 per cent., and where the infant is the first baby
just over 19 per cent. are exclusively fed by artificial means. In
the group where other children in the family have died, exclusive
breast-feeding occurs in a smaller percentage of the infants
investigated than is the case where all the children in the family
have survived.
Among the infants dying within the year in which they were
born, no matter from what disease they die, breast-feeding occurs
in a considerably lower percentage of cases than among survivors.
This is extremely significant, for it shows that, quite apart
from the direct injury to the baby resulting from the deprivation
of its natural food, these babies succumb in greater degree to all
diseases by which they are attacked. In other words, artificially
fed infants have a lowered vitality even when they survive, as is
shown by their greater mortality from such diseases as bronchitis,
pneumonia, measles and whooping cough—diseases which apparently
bear no direct relation to the method of feeding.
But when we consider that 88 per cent. of the children dying
from zymotic diarrhcea are exclusively hand-fed, and that only
4 per cent. were alleged to be solely breast-fed, that 78 per cent.
of those dying from tuberculosis, 66 per cent. of those dying from
marasmus, and 63 per cent. of those dying from enteritis were
exclusively hand-fed, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that
in this fact alone we have the chief factor in the production of
these diseases.
It is impossible to insist too strongly on the importance of
breast-feeding infants. It is certainly important that a pure
supply of cows' milk should be available, but first and last it must