It thus happens that bread and potatoes, brandy and gin, are thrust into infants' mouths.

With the infant that is given the breast it is easier to make plain that, except by the doctor's orders, nothing else must be given.
An additional reason why the mother should suckle her child is the close and frequent association with the child thus involved.

Not only is the child better cared for in all respects, but the mother is not deprived of the discipline of such care, and is also enabled from the outset to learn and to understand the child's nature.
The inability to suckle acquires great significance if we realize that it is associated, probably in a large measure as a direct cause, with infantile mortality.

The mortality of artificially-fed infants during the first year of life is seldom less than double that of the breast-fed, sometimes it is as much as three times that of the breast-fed, or even more; thus at Derby 51.7 per cent.

of hand-fed infants die under the age of twelve months, but only 8.6 per cent.