A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PROBLEM 159 



which a needlessly high death-rate must be re- 

 garded. 



That infantile mortality would be greatly reduced 

 if all babies were breast-fed is certain. WTierever 

 the relation of infant feeding to infant mortality has 

 been investigated, it has been demonstrated that the 

 baby fed at its mother's breast has a better grip on life, 

 a much better chance to survive, than the baby fed 

 upon cow's milk or any other substitute for its natural 

 food. Such investigations have been made in many 

 cities, especially with reference to deaths from diar- 

 rhoeal diseases, and uniformly point to the conclusion 

 that maternal breast milk is the safest, as it is also the 

 most natural, food for a baby. And when some great 

 event has occurred in any large city to liberate many 

 mothers from industrial pursuits, so that they might 

 nurse their babies as Nature intended, the death-rate 

 of infants has been enormously reduced. That was 

 what happened in Paris, in 1871, during the great 

 siege, when the infant death-rate was decreased by 

 40 per cent.* That was what happened, too, during 

 the great strike in the cotton mills of Preston, Eng- 

 land, in 1853, and during the great Lancashire " cot- 

 ton famine" caused by our own Civil War." To some 

 extent it happens whenever a strike occurs in which a 

 large number of women are engaged for a considerable 

 period. And where private philanthropy or public 

 funds have been devoted to the encouragement of 



