AVHEN THE MOTHEES FAIL 41 



French municipalities." It is not believed that by 

 such methods the number of those who fail to nurse 

 their children because of physical disability will be 

 materially lessened, but rather that all who are 

 physically able to do so, but who would be otherwise 

 prevented, owing to the necessities of earning a 

 Uving, will be enabled to do their full maternal duty. 

 But the value of babies in sterile France is very high ! 



A bewildering array of proprietary artificial foods, 

 most of them cunningly advertised, with all sorts 

 of impressive names, tempts the mother who is unable 

 to nurse her baby as Nature intended. Of the great 

 majority of these "foods" it is safe to say that they 

 are positively dangerous, little better than poisons, 

 in fact. Of the very small minority of them which 

 do not deserve this sweeping denunciation, there is 

 probably not a single one which can be given with 

 perfect safety to every child, or with reasonable 

 expectancy of good results. Those containing a 

 large proportion of baked wheat or barley flour may 

 often be used with advantage as diluents, that is, 

 they may advantageously be used in conjunction 

 with a liberal quantity of milk;^* but their use is 

 uneconomical, as will be seen from the fact that it 

 is only the flour in them which it is either necessary 

 or desirable to use, and that can be bought much 



