NUTRITIVE VALUE OF RAW AND BOILED MILK 203 



tion in percentage gains which has already been noted as occurring 

 in this series as compared with the breast-fed series. 



It must not be supposed that because the children who were 

 artificially fed show at a later date an equal weight with the 

 breast-fed children, that there is nothing advantageous in breast- 

 feeding. Doubtless where the infants are under constant medical 

 supervision, as was the case in the infants in the Berlin series, 

 the results of artificial feeding are in great measure mitigated. 



It is well known that the death-rate among artificially-fed infants 

 during the first year of life is very much higher than that among the 

 breast-fed infants. This alone emphatically condemns artificial 

 feeding from the public health point of view. 



Further, even when medical supervision is available, the 

 medical records of the Berlin series showed that the artificially- 

 fed infants were more frequently indisposed and suffered from 

 minor ailments to a much greater degree than the breast-fed infants. 

 Many of the breast-fed babies appear to have been exempt from 

 minor ailments throughout the greater part of their first year of 

 life, whereas among the artificially-fed ones there are numerous 

 records of dyspeptic conditions, mild bronchitis, and slight attacks 

 of diarrhoea. The sickness incidence which is recorded on the 

 artificially-fed series bears out what is already known, namely, 

 that the mortality figures merely form a partial index of the 

 general prevalence of whatever disease may be under consideration. 

 For every infant that dies as a result of its feeding, a consider- 

 ably greater number will show minor ailments which will possibly 

 impair the constitution, but will probably not lead to death. 



Of recent years a large amount of information has been obtained 

 and recorded at the numerous infant consultation centres in this 

 and other countries. In a few cases the presiding physician has 

 worked up the figures of infants' weights and the medical notes, 

 and has published the results obtained. In the majority of these 

 cases, however, the number of infants which are under observation 

 over a prolonged period and fed upon the same diet is not large. They 

 all, however, confirm the facts already brought forward, and show 

 the great superiority of breast-feeding over any other method of 

 feeding, due regard being had to the social conditions of the infants. 



One or two of the publications upon this matter deserve 

 recording, but in the majority of cases the general trend, although 

 supporting the above remarks, is not sufficiently precise to be 

 utilised for the present purpose. Phillipson reports the results 

 of observations upon twenty-three artificially-fed babies at the 

 infant consultation at Frankfort. The children were about a month 

 old when the observations were commenced and were all under 

 observation for some weeks. The infants were fed on simple milk 

 dilutions, the milk being heated. The children appear to have made 

 satisfactory progress and no untoward after-effects were observed. 

 Krost, of Chicago, reports upon the feeding of 500 babies whose 



