190 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE MILK QUESTION 



each bottle containing enough for a Single meal and no 

 more, the quantity depending upon the age, weight, 

 and physical condition of the child and being pre- 

 scribed by the examining physician. Sometimes, 

 following the lead of Professor Herrgott's Nancy 

 experiment, gifts of food or money are made to en- 

 courage breast-nursing. This description of the work 

 of the Consultations de Nourrissons established by 

 Professor Budin in Paris applies to almost all others, 

 except that in some instances they are not attached 

 to maternity hospitals, existing as separate institu- 

 tions, and are free to all infants, no matter where 

 born. In some cases, also, the milk given to the 

 infants that must be bottle-fed is pasteurized instead 

 of sterilized, and, in a few places, modified. 



It will be seen from the foregoing description that 

 the Consultations de Nourrissons can hardly be clas- 

 sified as milk depots, except incidentally. Their 

 primary purpose is to discourage bottle-feeding as 

 much as possible. Naturally, they do a great deal 

 in the way of lessening the death-rate among the very 

 limited number of infants with which they deal. 

 When one thinks of the careful, devoted, and highly 

 efficient skill which surrounds them when they are 

 born, and then of the expert and conscientious weekly 

 examination during the first two years of life, bio- 

 logically the most important years of all, it is evident 

 that these pauper infants are in many ways to be 



