valuable ground is lost, and we have a child who perhaps for weeks 
can not take any form of cow's milk at all. 
In the second, the results may vary. The digestive disturbances 
are. as a usual thing, erroneously attributed to the cow’s milk pro- 
teids. The constipation may be regarded as the result of a lack of 
fat, which may be added to a diet already overcharged with this, and 
a gastro-intestinal crisis definitely precipitated. 
We must, therefore, regard the percentage system of feeding as 
based upon conclusions that are incomplete and the result of clin- 
ical observation alone, a form of observation that is prone to lead to 
inferences incorrectly grounded in fact. Without deprecating the 
skill and care used in working out these formulae there is occasion 
for regret that until very lately, in the belief of the complete scien- 
tific accuracy of our methods, we have failed to undertake any obser- 
vations for ourselves as to the nutritive requirements of infants, and 
the actual digestive absorption that takes place in respect to the vari- 
ous constituents of human and other milks in the infantile digestive 
tube. We see by the foregoing that the whole question of the arti- 
ficial feeding of infants may be reduced from a condition of extreme 
complexity, based upon the incomplete data of clinical observations, 
to a relatively simple and scientific basis. The principles, briefly 
stated, consist in feeding to every child who must be artificially fed 
a food which, based on the age and weight of the child, will furnish 
it with the energy quotient it requires and no more, and to continue 
the food at that composition and quantity until a diminution in 
the weekly gain of weight, unaccompanied by symptoms referable to 
the gastro-intestinal tract, informs us that an increase in the diet 
is necessary. 
As we need no longer be deterred by our fears of the indigestibility 
of cow’s milk proteid, in the absence of excessive quantities of fat, 
or changes due to fermentation, undiluted cow’s milk can be given 
from the beginning of the first month on, provided its content of fat 
does not exceed 3 to 3.5 per cent, nor the daily quantity greater than 
150 cubic centimeters per kilogram of body weight. 
To settle any doubt as to the digestibility of whole cow’s milk in 
the stomach of infants, we have but to turn to the observations of 
Budin, Oppenheimer, Variot, Comby, Lazard, Drapier, Ruffle, Bon- 
ifas, Gillet, and others, men of large experience, who have fed infants 
from the earliest dat 7 s in life on whole cow’s milk in proportion to 
their needs without observing anything but the happiest results." 
a Budin.: The Nursling. Comby : Medicine Moderne, Mar. 14, 1894. Lazard : 
Journal de Cliniques et de Therapeutiques Infantiles, L895,886. Darpier : Rap- 
port sur le fonctionnence de la creche. Ruffle: La Gouttette on la diarrhee 
verte des nourissons et son traitement par le lait sterilise. Bonifas : Le Progres 
Medicale. Gillet : Formulaire d’Hygiene Infantile Individuelle. 
