REMEDIAL THEORIES AND EXPERIMENTS 229 



the infants' milk depot contributed to the splendid 

 advance made in the direction of reducing the in- 

 fantile death-rate to a minimum. It is significant 

 that in connection with the work at Rochester and 

 the work of the depots conducted by Mr. Nathan 

 Straus we have the most emphatic and satisfactory 

 evidence of the enormous reduction which can be 

 made in the infantile death-rate through the estab- 

 lishment and maintenance of wisely managed infants' 

 depots. We must conclude our summary with a 

 brief examination of some important facts established 

 by the Straus depots. 



I do not propose to enter upon any discussion of the 

 claims made from time to time as to the influence of 

 the Straus depots in reducing the infantile death-rate 

 in New York City. I content myself by saying that 

 I am firmly convinced that the work of the depots has 

 been a very important factor in bringing about that 

 reduction, a statement which will not be seriously 

 disputed by anybody who has given an hour to the 

 study of the subject and who is candid and unbiassed. 

 To my mind, the most exacting test to which any 

 such institution has ever been put is furnished in the 

 figures which relate to the work done by Mr. Straus 

 on Randall's Island some years ago. That experi- 

 ment and the investigations made by Drs. Park and 

 Holt are universally regarded as being among the 

 most important, if not altogether the most important, 



