deal of trouble. It was apparently not thriving; its bowels were
bad; it constantly cried, and seemed to be suffering from colic and
indigestion. The mother stated that it lay with its legs constantly
drawn up and passed enormous quantities of gas. The baby certainly
looked sick. It had been a small baby at birth; and at three months it
weighed only six pounds. After a careful examination, I could find
nothing in the physical condition of the child itself, which
satisfactorily explained the condition, and had made up my mind that the
food upon which it was being exclusively fed, and upon which it had been
fed since birth, was not agreeing with it. Before recommending a change
of food, I asked the mother to state in detail just how she prepared it.

The directions printed on the can in which the food was bought called
for so many ounces of a certain quality of "top milk." She thought this
meant simply so many ounces off the top of a bottle of milk, which, of
course, meant that she was feeding her baby exclusively a very rich
cream and absolutely no milk. The result was that the baby--small and
weak to begin with--could not digest this rich mixture, so it gradually
lost vitality, as the mother kept increasing the strength of the food,
according to the age, as directed by the instructions, until it was
completely knocked out. I pointed out her mistake and suggested a change
in her methods; she was instructed to use the formula for a child of two
months, instead of the one for three months, as she was doing. The child
immediately began to pick up and in the course of six weeks was entirely
cured, and had gained considerably in weight. This mother was a
careful, clean, painstaking, attentive nurse, and it was a long time
before she forgave herself for the mistake. The mistake here was a
little matter, but the results were big and convincing.

The second case was that of a child of about the same age, but in this
instance it had been a robust, healthy child when born, and of normal
weight and size. The mother nursed it for about one month, when her milk
failed, and it was put upon a well-known, patent barley preparation. The
food seemed to agree with it for a time, but, as the mother explained,
the child soon seemed to be dissatisfied at each feeding,--it gave her
the impression that it was not getting enough to eat, so she increased
the quantity. Despite this increase of food, it was apparent that the
baby was getting weaker