112 MILK SUGAR 



the bacteria entirely by giving them proprietary foods with the 

 dire results that one sees in dispensary work. This concentra- 

 tion on the bacteria of the milk has left the equally important 

 factor of the quantity and character of the food entirely out of 

 account. It was my good fortune to substitute for one of the 

 physicians during July at one of the Berlin Sauglings-fiirsorge- 

 stellen. I was impressed by one thing in particular the good 

 results that can be obtained by simple, home-made gruel dilu- 

 tion of milk in a class of people who have no ice chests and 

 who live under poor hygienic conditions. Milk was supplied 

 only once a day and so the bacterial content of the milk must, 

 in most instances, have been high. And still the children did 

 well. Why? Because they were carefully watched and weighed, 

 and their food was always kept within the tolerance limit. Only 

 in exceptional instances was a special food prepared in the milk 

 kitchen of this Fiirsorgestelle. The mothers were taught how 

 to make their milk dilutions by a nurse who visited each new 

 case. And so the movement is gradually educating a large part 

 of the population to rational ideas of feeding and hygiene. 



How many mothers do you suppose there are in America 

 today who realize the danger that lurks in the sugar which they 

 so generously add to the milk? How many doctors are there 

 who appreciate this fact? How many doctors are there who 

 will tell a mother to stop nursing her child with no other indi- 

 cation than the fact that the first few drops of milk expressed 

 from the breast are blue? We see this in the dispensary only 

 too often. This cornerstone of infant feeding is lightly set aside, 

 not by one, but by a large percentage of physicians who will 

 take a child from the breast for the most trivial reasons. As 

 regards his advice to mothers on feeding infants, it will depend 

 largely on whether Mellin, Nestle or Horlick sent him the last 

 sample. 



What we need is education of the physician primarily and 

 through him the education of the public. We need to cull the 

 scientific and clinical facts from the mass of empiricism of infant 

 feeding so that they can be presented to the physician in a form 

 that will be useful to him, so that he may appreciate the dangers 

 as well as the therapeutic advantages of the different elements 

 of the milk. What we need is capable supervision of each milk 

 station by men who can make each station a center from which 

 the propaganda of rational feeding and therapy will spread, so 

 that ignorance will keep no infant from the breast, so that 

 ignorance will no longer prevent the institution of the right 

 therapy when there is still hope to save the child. 



In conclusion let me repeat once more that I appreciate as 

 much as anyone the advantages and necessity of pure milk of 



