SHOULD A MOTHER PUT HER BABY ON ARTIFICIAL FOOD IF HER SUPPLY OF MILK, DURING THE FIRST TWO WEEKS, IS NOT QUITE ENOUGH TO SATISFY IT?--This is a question that cannot be answered by a simple yes or no. A great deal depends upon circumstances, and these circumstances must be weighed and counterweighed before an answer is given. It is a serious matter, in our judgment it is a criminal proceeding for a physician to advise the use of an artificial food without exhausting every aid and means to preserve and increase the mother's milk. This is a subject in need of earnest missionaries in all walks of life, and it should be the duty of every woman's club and gathering to voice the conviction of the highest womanhood by advocating the use of mother's milk with every child born. A woman who can and will not nurse her own child is scarcely deserving of the name of mother. It does not seem quite human to deprive a baby of the milk which rightfully belongs to it; yet in certain walks of life this is not an uncommon procedure. On the other hand the percentage of women able to nurse their children is decreasing. This is especially true as applied to cities, though it is also true, in a less degree, in the rural districts. One eminent authority states that less than twenty-five per cent. of the well-to-do mothers, who have earnestly and intelligently attempted to nurse their babies, succeed in doing so for a period longer than three months. This authority also says: "An intellectual city mother who is able to nurse her child successfully for the entire first year is almost a phenomenon." Women nowadays have so many diversified interests, that the primal duty of maternal nursing is not at all a fashionable function. If, however, the mother is willing, and has conscientiously tried to nurse her baby, and after seven or eight days it is found that she has not enough milk to satisfy it, and if the quality seems to be good, some expedient should be immediately adopted to tide the condition over until the mother resumes her customary household routine. The safest expedient under these circumstances is to alternate the feedings; one feeding from both breasts of the mother, and the next an artificial food. Some arrangement of this kind is the just and the safest way, because a very large percentage of mothers suffer from inactivity while lying in bed after a confinement. This inactivity expresses itself in a failure of some of the organs to perform their duty properly. This may affect the quantity, and sometimes the quality, of the milk, but it is, as a rule, quickly rectified as soon as the mother is up and active. If, however, the milk is still found to be inadequate after she is up and has resumed her usual habits, and if her health is good, and she is eating well, it is distinctly best to put the child exclusively on an artificial diet. CERTAIN CONDITIONS JUSTIFY THE ADOPTION OF ARTIFICIAL FEEDING FROM THE BEGINNING