697 
cal 3 ^ear of 1903-4 but 4 of these were breast fed, 48 were partly 
breast fed, 117 were bottle fed, and in one case the method of feeding 
was unknown. 
Keference to Table 6 shows that the German city of Barmen, with 
an infant mortality rate of 132 (1906), enjoys the lowest rate of any 
city in Germany, and for a number of years has made a favorable 
showing in this respect. Kriege and Sentemann ° attribute this for- 
tunate circumstance to the general prevalence of breast feeding in 
that city, 63 per cent of all infants being nursed by their mothers, 
15 per cent being partly breast fed, and only 22 per cent being 
bottle fed. 
Further space can not be devoted to the multiplication of figures 
showing the relative immunity of the breast-fed child to death from 
diseases of the digestive tube. Xothing, however, can more graphic- 
ally illustrate this point than the accompanying chart from Budin 
which is here reproduced (p. 696). 
PART II.— THE IHEANT'S DIETARY. 
In common with adults, the infant requires five elements of food 
for its sustenance, to wit: Proteid, carbohydrate, fat, mineral salts, 
and water. Owing, however, to the undeveloped state of its organs 
of assimilation it can not avail itself of anj- wide dietary range. By 
reason of its rapid growth and more active metabolism it requires 
food of special form and with the nutritive ingredients in special pro- 
portions to each other. Milks are the only class of food which ful- 
fill these conditions, being, as they are, an animal product, designed 
hj nature only to that end. 
As this paper deals merely with the dietary of infants less than 1 
year of age, woman’s milk and its only feasible substitute, cow’s 
milk, will alone be considered. 
woman’s milk. 
Woman’s milk is the secretion of the human mammary gland. Un- 
der normal conditions of lactation it is in no sense a transudation 
from the blood and lymphatics, but is a true secretion elaborated by 
glandular tissue. True milk is not present in the mammary glands 
until two to four days after parturition, and occasionally not until 
the fifth day. 
Colostmm . — The secretion present in the mamma for the first few 
days after delivery differs materially from normal milk and is known 
as “ colostrum.” It is a fluid of a deep yellow tint, chiefly due to 
°Allg. Centralblatt f. Gesundlieitspflege, 1900, XXV, 25. 
