lepsy, chorea, insanity, are also conditions which render
artificial feeding necessary.

It is much wiser immediately to put the child on artificial feeding if
there is a justifiable reason for it than to experiment, because any
experiment at this time is almost certain not to be in favor of the
child. Artificial feeding is a comparatively easy and successful
problem, provided it is begun with healthy digestive organs. If you keep
the child at the breast of a mother whose milk is inadequate in quantity
or quality, or both, for two or three days, and then begin artificial
feeding, the child's stomach is already unable to perform its duty, and
you have to treat it with the greatest degree of care and attention, and
probably begin with a weak food, until you regain the lost ground.

MOTHERS' MISTAKES IN THE PREPARATION OF ARTIFICIAL FOOD.--Another
interesting condition which is quite common, is the tendency on the part
of the mother to fail to follow instructions correctly,--even though
written or printed,--regarding the preparation of the baby's food. When
the baby is not thriving and gaining steadily in weight, or is fretty
and cries a good deal, and does not rest and sleep peacefully,
something, of course, is wrong. If, after a careful physical examination
of the child, nothing is found to justify these symptoms, a physician
invariably finds, if he questions the mother closely, that she has
mistaken the instructions and is preparing the food wrongly.

Infinite care in every little detail is the price of success in raising
babies as well as in every other field of human endeavor. Revise
carefully your method of preparing baby's food if there is any trouble
such as is described above. Despite your absolute assurance that you are
making no mistake, do not be surprised to find that you are not
following directions to the letter, and because of this unintentional
mistake, your negligence is responsible for your baby's condition. Go
over the instructions with your husband, and let him follow your method
of preparation, as you repeat it. He may detect the mistake if any
exists,--two heads are always better than one. So important is this
matter that the following two actual cases will demonstrate how easy it
is to make a mistake, despite the absolute confidence of the mother, in
each case, that she was following the printed directions correctly:

I was called to see a baby whose mother informed me that it was having a
great