Science in Public Affairs 



RECENT EXPERIMENTS 



Perhaps, however, something can be done in 

 the direction indicated by an interesting article 

 contributed to the Times of December 26, 1905, 

 by Miss Bunting, who describes the system which 

 is being worked by a committee of ladies in Paris 

 to encourage breast-feeding. Its simplicity cer- 

 tainly commends it. Rooms are taken in very 

 poor quarters, and in them are supplied gratis 

 two good meals a day to every woman with a 

 child at the breast who cares to apply. There 

 seems to be no difficulty in obtaining the neces- 

 sary funds, and Miss Bunting assures us that the 

 help thus given at the time when the infant is 

 drawing heavily on its mother's strength is most 

 beneficial alike to mother and child. Such a 

 system is perhaps easier to start and maintain in 

 Paris than in London, for in Paris the birth-rate 

 is lower, and public opinion is concerned in en- 

 couraging the procreation of children. If it acts 

 by way of making things easier for the first twelve 

 months to the mothers of illegitimate children, the 

 gain would perhaps be doubtful in London. With 

 us, too, the birth-rate among the poorer classes 

 is still probably much higher than prudence would 

 warrant, or the sociologist desire. 



Another experiment in the same direction was 

 described in the Times of December 28, 1905, 

 and is being carried out in Longwood, a suburb 

 of Huddersfield. Here to the mother of each 

 child born a promise is made to pay .1 on the 



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