There is little reason to believe that the average ignorance in matters of health of the working-class mother is much greater than that of mothers in other classes of society. Furthermore, it would appear that working-class mothers give their infants the supremely important initial start of breast feeding in a larger proportion of cases than do the mothers in other stations of life. The mothers in both classes may be ignorant; in both there is deficient training in habits of observation, especially in regard to the beginnings of illness; but the mother in comfortable circumstances is able to ensure for her infant certain advantages which the infant of the poorer mother often cannot obtain. What are these? 1. The well-to-do mother is commonly able to devote herself to her infant and have assistance in this duty; the working class mother is single-handed, and has also to perform, unaided, all the duties of her household, including the washing and cooking for her husband and herself and possibly for several children. 2. The well-to-do mother is commonly able to ensure that the milk for her infant is purchased under the best circumstances, is stored in a satisfactory pantry, and is prepared under cleanly conditions. The working-class mother often is supplied with stale, impoverished milk, may have no pantry, and, except when suckling her infant, is handicapped at every stage in the cleanly preparation of her infant’s food. 3. If the well-to-do mother is ill, adequate medical and nursing assistance is at once available, and the child’s welfare can be safeguarded; if the working-class mother is ill, the child usually must suffer with its mother. 4. If the child of the well-to-do mother falls ill, everything that good nursing and medical attendance can furnish is commonly at once available; for the child of the working-class mother the state of matters is remote from the ideal. Facilities for obtaining medical attendance and nursing vary greatly in different districts; but in none are they satisfactory for the poor, and especially for the classes who have limited incomes, but do not as a rule receive skilled hospital treatment, or avail themselves of help from nursing associations. Prompt medical assistance at home commonly cannot be afforded for children of wage-earners, and particularly not for the children of unskilled workers. 5. Infants and nursing mothers are very rapidly influenced by their environment. This environment is complex. The mother is the main element in the environment of the infant. If she is overworked and suffers from chronic fatigue her infant must suffer; directly, because the mother’s milk under these circumstances is liable to be scanty or impoverished or otherwise unwholesome; or indirectly, owing to her being unable to give sufficient attention to her infant. The infant of the well-to-do mother is less likely to suffer in either of these ways.