WHEN THE MOTHERS FAIL 43 



columns of the medical papers are fuU of advertise- 

 ments of these concoctions, which are at best swindles 

 and often deadly, as the facts cited show. As one 

 prominent physician wrote me, commenting upon a 

 magazine article which I had published upon the 

 subject, when you "look over the medical journals, 

 many of them of the highest repute, and see the 

 glaring statements of infant foods set forth, you 

 wonder that there is an American mother left willing 

 to nurse her child." 



Then, also, there is the dishonest connection be- 

 tween the manufacturers and the health bureaus 

 of the country. No sooner is a baby born than the 

 advertisements of patent foods begin to pour in 

 upon the mother. Sometimes, in big cities, not 

 more than twenty-four hours pass before the torrent 

 of literature begins to flood the house. The diffi- 

 culties of breast-feeding are glaringly presented; 

 wonderful stories of successful feeding upon this, 

 that, or the other food are enumerated, backed up 

 by illustrations of over-fattened babies in a manner 

 that reminds one of the live-stock pictures which 

 one sometimes sees adorning farmers' kitchens. The 

 mother wonders how the manufacturers and vendors 

 could have secured her name, how it was possible 

 for them to know of the baby's birth. How, except 

 from the local health bureau or the physician ? There 

 is an alliance between the manufacturers and some 



