241 
statistics of 1.000 towns given by the Registrar-General of England 
for 1905 do not show such a relation throughout England to be 
intimate. 
UNNECESSARY HAND FEEDING. 
Although it might seem useless to repeat what the greatest medical 
authorities have so often asserted it is interesting nevertheless to con- 
sider to wliat extent hand-feeding, with its melancholy impress on 
vital statistics, is an absolute necessity. Madame Dluski, in a thesis 
delivered at the Baudelocque Clinic, Paris, expresses the opinion that 
among 100 healthy women, when the necessary conditions of alimenta- 
tion and repose are present, ‘99 are actually able to nurse their off- 
spring. She concludes that women, almost without exception, can 
nurse their babes ; that four-fifths of mothers can do so from the be- 
ginning of lactation; that nearly all can do so after a longer or 
shorter time, and that absolute agalactia does not exist. Yet despite 
all efforts to promote the practice of breast-feeding a great propor- 
tion of infants are uselessly bottle fed. Indeed the practice of feed- 
ing infants with the milk of animals (goats and cows) is of great 
antiquity — the Greeks and Scythians had recourse to it — but it is be- 
lieved to be greatly increasing in modern times. 
SCIENTIFIC ARTIFICIAL FEEDING AND THE MORTALITY RATE. 
In consequence of the great diffusion of the practice of artificial 
feeding for infants it is interesting to study the effect on morbidity 
and mortality statistics of a scientifically compounded artificial diet 
compared with a diet too often ignorantly or carelessly prepared. 
The statistics of the pasteurization of milk throw much light on the 
subject. 
THE STRAUS PASTEURIZED MILK DEPOTS. 
Pasteurized milk was first made available for infants in general in 
New York City in 1893, in which year Nathan Straus dispensed 
34,400 bottles of milk so prepared from one depot. In 1894 339,494 
bottles were issued, in 1895 666,622, and in 1896 666,941. In 1905 
2,668,397 bottles were dispensed and 1,016,731 glasses of pasteurized 
milk were bought at the booths in the parks of New York City. In 
1906 17 Straus stations dispensed 3,142,252 bottles of pasteurized milk 
and .1,078,405 glasses. 
Prior to the beginning of this work the death rate of children under 
5 years in New York City was over 96.2 out of every 1,000 and in 
June, July, and August the death rate of children was at the rate of 
136.4 per 1,000 per annum. With the increased use of pasteurized 
milk the death rate fell to 55 per 1,000 in 1906, and the summer death 
rate to 62.7 per 1,000. 
1414— Bull. 56—09 16 
