■WHEN THE MOTHERS FAIL 39 



bottle-fed babies: Drs. Hope, Meinert, and Ballard 

 collected data relating to 1,943 cases in which death 

 occurred during the first year, with the astounding 

 result that only 61, or 3 per cent, were found 

 to have been breast-fed.'^ Almost as startling 

 are some figures published in 1905 by the Medical 

 Officer of Health in Birmingham, England, giving 

 particulars relating to 178 infants who died under 

 six months old. Of the total number 16 were fed at 

 the breast, 28 partially fed at the breast, and no less 

 than 135 were artificially fed. The medical officer gives 

 it as his opinion, based upon long and close observa- 

 tion, that the mortality of infants who are artificially 

 fed is at least thirty times as great as among those 

 who are nursed at the breast.'' Add to these terrible 

 figures the fact that official statistics in Germany 

 show the mortality in the first year among artifi- 

 cially fed infants to be 51 per cent as against 

 only 8 per cent of those who are nursed exclu- 

 sively at the breast,'* and no further evidence of 

 the serious part which artificial feeding plays in 

 infantile mortality rates will be necessary. The old 

 temperance cry, "There is death in the bottle!" 

 has a new and terrible signification in the case of 

 the bottle-fed baby. 



Facts like these have led philanthropists in many 

 instances, and public authorities in a few instances, 

 to try various schemes for the promotion of breast- 



