192 THE COMMON SENSE OP THE MILK QUESTION 



perhaps it would be more correct to say a modifica- 

 tion, of the Consultation de Nourrissons which Budin 

 had estabhshed shortly before at the Charity Hospital. 

 In 1894 Dr. L6on Dufour established a similar depot 

 in F6camp, the first to have an independent existence 

 of its own, being unconnected with any other institu- 

 tion. Dr. Dufour named his depot Govtte de Lait, 

 and the name has been generally adopted throughout 

 France. 



There are to-day Gouttes de Lait in over a himdred 

 French towns and cities. In Belgium they are com- 

 mon institutions, under the name of Laiterie Mater- 

 nelles, and in Spain, under the name of the Gota de 

 Leche, we find the same institution flourishing. Under 

 various names, there are similar depots in St. Peters- 

 biu-g, Odessa, and other Russian cities ; in Roumania, 

 Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, 

 Holland, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, and England, 

 among European countries; as well as in Canada, 

 the United States, Argentina, and Morocco. Some of 

 these are very small institutions, incapable of mate- 

 rially affecting the death-rate. It would be quite 

 impossible to present statistics of the work of these 

 depots upon anything like a uniform plan, for the 

 reason that in some cases none have been kept, and the 

 vital statistics of different countries are not fairly 

 comparable in many instances. It is only fair to say, 

 however, that wherever records have been kept, the ' 



