It is unfortunate that current beliefs throw many restrictions about nursing-mothers which are unreasonable and unsupported by scientific investigation. There was a time when mothers did not question their ability to nurse, they assumed this duty as a matter of course. Indeed, they were compelled to do so, since refined methods of artificial feeding had not as yet been devised. Among the agricultural class, even to-day, it is exceptional for mothers to fail to nurse their children, if they are provided with the ordinary comforts of life. But women who live at the higher tension of city life are frequently unsuccessful, because they are more inclined to be nervous or because they disregard, among other things, the need of fresh air, plain food, or regular habits. It is wrong to suppose that elaborate rules of conduct are necessary for nursing mothers; the instruction they require is simple and scarcely different from that to be given anyone who desires good health. If she lead a wholesome existence a woman will not only nurse her child successfully but will gain in strength. _Diet_.--In manufacturing centers, where a large proportion of the women are employed in confining work, the percentage of mothers who are able to nurse their children is exceedingly small; consequently the infant mortality is very high. Better nourishment for the mother, it has seemed, would render her more capable of successful lactation, and would decrease or even eliminate badly executed artificial feeding, and would therefore reduce the death rate among the babies. In a few foreign cities the idea has been put into practice. Free restaurants have been established for working mothers, and they have thus been enabled to perform their maternal duties much more successfully. Incidentally it has been shown that nourishment may be supplied mother and infant at a smaller cost than proper artificial food for the infant alone. The quantity of nourishment required by nursing mothers is not so large as might be expected, and in many instances it is over-feeding rather than under-feeding that must be guarded against. Very accurate observations have been made which indicate that during the early weeks of nursing no more food is needed than at other times; in all probability this remains true throughout the whole period of lactation. Over-eating, as many of us know, is a frequent cause of indigestion. It is of the first importance, therefore, that nursing mothers should not take more food than they can assimilate, for indigestion will provoke disturbances in the milk which in turn will make the baby uncomfortable. For a similar reason mothers should have their meals at regular intervals.