296 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE MILK QUESTION 



Connected with the infants' milk depots in the larger 

 cities I should like to see something like the French 

 Consultations de Nourrissons, described in Chapter 

 VII. It may not be necessary to follow the French 

 method exactly, but the principle of having incor- 

 porated into the system of providing proper food for 

 infants some plan for the encouragement of breast- 

 nursing seems to me a good one. It is my firm con- 

 viction, based upon long and careful study of the 

 problem, that a great deal may be done to lessen 

 infantile mortality by means of education. The 

 mothers need educating, and it has been shown that 

 breast-nursing, the natural way of feeding a child, 

 can be promoted by education. At the risk of some 

 rather tedious repetition, I would remind the reader 

 that this question of breast-nursing goes to the 

 roots of the evil. It is no accident that the infant 

 death-rate in such a crowded ward of a great city 

 as the Cheetham Division of Manchester, England, 

 should be the lowest in the city. The Jewish mothers 

 there, as a rule, suckle their infants. It is not an ac- 

 cident, either, that similar conditions are found in 

 the crowded districts of the East Side of New York 

 City, where the infant mortality is lower than for the 

 whole city, or that the infant death-rate in Ireland 

 is low. Breast-nursing is the explanation.' "WTiat- 

 ever can be done, therefore, to promote breast-nursing 

 should be done. 



