_History of Artificial Feeding._--It is uncertain during what respective periods of human history the practice of rearing infants by means of wet-nurses, and the practice of rearing them by artificial feeding, first made their appearance. To-day, certainly, both these methods of rearing infants prevail very widely--far more widely than at any former time. No official statistics exist showing the proportion of all infants born alive that are suckled by the mother, suckled by wet-nurses, and artificially fed, respectively. According to some private investigators, in large towns less than half of all infants are suckled by their own mothers, and in France the proportion of those which are otherwise nourished is said to range from 60 per cent. to 70 per cent. Certainly, the conditions with regard to this matter are worse in France than they are elsewhere. Many physicians believe that the constitutional incapacity of women to suckle their children is increasing. They point out that an unused organ tends to atrophy; and they consider, not merely that the incapacity to suckle is transmitted by inheritance, but that when so transmitted, the incapacity persists throughout all subsequent generations. But this view, whose soundness would deprive us of our most effective weapon in our campaign against excessive infant mortality, is erroneous. The recent investigations of various medical practitioners especially interested in the diseases of children have shown that (even in districts in which for generations mothers have almost completely abandoned the practice of suckling their children), when properly advised, 90 per cent. of all women proved capable of suckling, if not for the full nine months, at any rate for a considerable period, before it was necessary to have recourse to cow’s milk. There are doubtless women who are really unable to suckle their children; and there are others who could do so, but in whom suckling is contra-indicated, either in their own interest or in that of the child. For example, a woman who is pregnant cannot give suck, for the human organism is not adapted to bear the common strain of pregnancy and of lactation. In the interest of the child that is being suckled, it is necessary that weaning should be effected directly a new pregnancy begins. Women suffering from chronic alcoholism and those addicted to morphine should not suckle their children, for the reason that a comparatively large quantity of the alcohol ingested, or of the morphine, as the case may be, is excreted in the milk. A child suffering from an infective disease, such as syphilis or tuberculosis, should be artificially fed, owing to the danger of infection.