July 24, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



123 



limitations -wliicli must be put upon it. Thus, 

 in my own " Laboratory Text-book of Embry- 

 ology," published in 1903, pp. 41^3, is given 

 a brief outline of the subject. It seemed to 

 me then that the general opinion was well 

 established, although at that time no single 

 comprehensive essay had been written upon 

 the subject. Hertwig's essay is most credit- 

 able, but most of the views he presents were 

 certainly current among embryologists before 

 he wrote. This emphasis of the importance 

 of Hertwig's essay is a most amiable failure, 

 and we may welcome a fresh example of in- 

 ternational scientific courtesy, but a critic 

 may be pardoned if he notes that that courtesy 

 is somewhat exaggerated in its expression. 



In conclusion, one may recommend Pro- 

 fessor Vialleton's work to American readers 

 very cordially. It is a sensible, competent 

 and interesting presentation of a great biolog- 

 ical problem, and unquestionably the best we 

 have had. 



Charles S. Minot 



The Common Sense of the Milk Question. 



By John Spargo. 



This book is a layman's endeavor to pro- 

 vide for the average intelligent citizen a pop- 

 ular, easily understandable statement of the 

 politico-social aspects of the milk problem. 

 This being the case, it is unfortunate that 

 the author has emphasized so strongly his 

 opinion as to the cause of the decline of 

 breast feeding and that he has so severely 

 arraigned the public authorities for their sup- 

 posed crimes of omission and commission 

 with reference to the milk supply. The 

 average reader will be too apt to accept the 

 author's opinions without looking beyond 

 them to determine the sufficiency or the in- 

 sufficiency of the evidence upon which they 

 are based. 



It may be true, as Mr. Spargo holds, that 

 physical disability on the part of the mother 

 is responsible for the larger part of the cases of 

 bottle feeding, but there is a very respectable 

 opinion to the contrary. And so long as the 

 question can not be answered with reasonable 

 certainty and unanimity by the body of men 



best able to speak — the medical profession — 

 it might have been better for a lay writer not 

 to declare quite so positively concerning it. 

 For many a mother may find in his teachings 

 the very excuse she is longing for to justify 

 her conscience in submitting her baby to the 

 dangers of bottle feeding. Even admitting, 

 however, that the decline of breast feeding is 

 due to increasing frequency of physical in- 

 capacity on the part of the mother, it is 

 not necessary to attribute the increase to 

 racial degeneration; inadequacy of lacteal 

 function in the individual, when it occurs, 

 seems much more likely to be as yet the im- 

 niediate result of the disuse of the mammary 

 glands during the long period that now com- 

 monly ensues after their full anatomical de- 

 velopment and before they are called into use, 

 the result of late marriage and postponed 

 child-bearing, rather than the result of racial 

 deterioration. 



Mr. Spargo should have submitted evidence 

 to show " the dishonest connection between 

 the manufacturers (of infants' artificial 

 foods) and the health bureaus of the country " 

 or else should have omitted the allegation of 

 its existence. The records of births on file 

 in the health offices of this country are com- 

 monly public records, and it bespeaks neither 

 dishonestly nor graft on the part of the health 

 officer if he refrains from denying to the citi- 

 zen his right of access to such records, even 

 though such a citizen be in the service of a 

 manufacturer of one of the tabooed foods and 

 desires to abstract for advertising purposes 

 the names and addresses of the mothers of 

 children recently born. The allegation, too, 

 that " our civic authorities stand in the posi- 

 tion of murderers and accessories to the murder 

 of thousands of infants every year " is ill- 

 advised, since it is not true. It seems re- 

 markable that one who is endeavoring so 

 earnestly as is Mr. Spargo to improve the 

 milk supply should have overlooked the fact 

 that the accomplishment of that end can not 

 be furthered by holding up to pfublie con- 

 tumely officials who, as a class, are quite as 

 sincere in their desire and quite as earnest in 

 their effort to accomplish that result as is Mr. 



