16, 1 Haughwout and Horrilleno: Intestinal Parasites 67 
* * * Jn the Philippines the mortality is greatest among breast-fed 
children, possibly because of the poor quality of the mother’s milk * * *. 
It seems probable that there is an intimate relation between beriberi 
of infants and a mother’s milk poor in quality and lacking certain neces- 
sary elements which are not included in the mother’s dietary.” At first 
glance it might seem advisable to supplant breast feeding by artificial, 
but under existing conditions this would be a blunder. The children 
saved from beriberi would be sacrificed to enteric diseases. That small 
part of our infant population which is artificially fed furnishes 65 per 
cent of the deaths from enteric diseases, and the breast-fed, much the 
larger part of the population, furnishes but 35 per cent of the infant 
mortality from this cause; so that even in Manila, breast-feeding of 
infants exerts a deterrent influence upon the mortality from gastrointes- 
tinal diseases. 
' This presents, in a few words, the rather embarrassing di- 
lemma that confronts the Filipino child. It must be said, 
however, that discoveries made in connection with infantile beri- 
beri since the above was written have helped in a measure to 
obviate much of the danger from that source. 
With a view to remedying the situation presented by the lack 
of fresh milk, Heiser(30) started experiments on the breeding 
of a hardy variety of milk goats during his period of duty in 
the Philippines. The idea was not developed, however. 
Without for an instant denying that breast-fed children and 
those fed on properly prepared artificial food will escape intes- 
tinal diseases of bacterial origin in a large proportion of in- 
stances, we believe these measures limit infections with the 
animal parasites to a lesser degree, and this conclusion is not 
based on the present study alone, but on a much more extended 
series of general observations extending over a considerable 
period of time. 
SUMMARY 
One hundred sick Filipino children have been studied with 
regard to intestinal parasitism. Of the total number 92 per 
cent were found to be infested with one or more parasites. 
Under 1 year the incidence was 66.6 per cent; between the first 
and second years, 73.6 per cent. All the children between the 
ages of 2 and 13 years were found to be parasitized. 
The earliest case of parasitism was encountered in a child 7 
months old. 
We have not considered the matter of treatment of these cases 
in this study. 
® McLaughlin and Andrews wrote in 1910. 
