WHEN THE MOTHERS FAIL 17 



upper classes in the progressive countries, it is so 

 common as to almost become the rule, only the ex- 

 ceptional mother being able to nurse her offspring. 

 It is for this reason that I have called the substitution 

 of artificial foods for mother's milk a relatively new 

 problem. The modern mother is growing more and 

 more unable to nurse her child at her breast. For 

 some subtle reason, this function of maternity is 

 being atrophied in civilized women; and the higher 

 their civilization, the less able are they to suckle 

 their infants. 



II 



I am convinced that it is not, as is very generally 

 supposed, that modern mothers are unwilling to nurse 

 their offspring, setting social pleasures above maternal 

 duties. I know that there are many eminent physi- 

 cians and other competent observers who attribute 

 the decline of breast-feeding wholly to social and 

 economic causes : to a desire on the part of the lei- 

 sured class to evade a responsibility which seriously 

 interferes with social pleasures;" and to the necessity 

 of earning a living which forces many women of the 

 poorer classes to become wage-earners in factories, 

 or other people's kitchens, to the neglect of their 

 infants.' I am of the opinion, however, that neither 

 unwillingness due to indolence or personal or class 

 vanity, nor the exigencies of wage-earning occupa- 



