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39
be insisted that the natural food of the human infant is its
mother's milk, and that to deprive it of this is to court disease,
physical decay and death. I am convinced that the most
important step in checking the disgraceful waste of infant life
is to insist on mothers mothering their young, and that before all
other measures it should be imperative that all mothers, physically
capable, should, if need be under penalty, suckle their own.
OTHER CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE HEALTH OF
THE INFANT.
Many other facts of considerable interest come out as a result of
the enquiry, and these are all exhibited in the diagrams, which
represent graphically the proportion of cases in each class in
respect of the particular conditions enquired into.
In respect of improper food, improper feeding bottles and
irregularity of feeding, infants dying within the year are much
worse than those surviving. Among those surviving, that class is
best in which all the others of the family of four or more survive,
while the worst occur in the group in which three or more of the
family have died. First-born infants are taken out of doors more
than second, second more than third, and third more than nth in
the group where all survive; while the greater the number of
children a mother has lost the less frequently is the last child
taken out.
The more children a mother has the less likelihood there
appears of the later children being properly clothed, or of living
in clean premises, or sleeping separate from their mothers.
The mothers of infants who die within the year are employed
in earning a living in much greater proportion than the mothers
whose babies survive.
C 2