Derby 51.7 per cent. of hand-fed infants die under the age of
twelve months, but only 8.6 per cent. of breast-fed infants.
Those who survive are by no means free from suffering. At the end
of the first year they are found to weigh about 25 per cent. less
than the breast-fed, and to be much shorter; they are more liable
to tuberculosis and rickets, with all the evil results that flow
from these diseases; and there is some reason to believe that the
development of their teeth is injuriously affected. The
degenerate character of the artificially-fed is well indicated by
the fact that of 40,000 children who were brought for treatment
to the Children's Hospital in Munich, 86 per cent. had been
brought up by hand, and the few who had been suckled had usually
only had the breast for a short time. The evil influence persists
even up to adult life. In some parts of France where the
wet-nurse industry flourishes so greatly that nearly all the
children are brought up by hand, it has been found that the
percentage of rejected conscripts is nearly double that for
France generally. Corresponding results have been found by
Friedjung in a large German athletic association. Among 155
members, 65 per cent. were found on inquiry to have been
breast-fed as infants (for an average of six months); but among
the best athletes the percentage of breast-fed rose to 72 per
cent. (for an average period of nine or ten months), while for
the group of 56 who stood lowest in athletic power the percentage
of breast-fed fell to 57 (for an average of only three months).

The advantages for an infant of being suckled by its mother are
greater than can be accounted for by the mere fact of being
suckled rather than hand-fed. This has been shown by Vitrey (_De
la Mortalité Infantile_, Thèse de Lyon, 1907), who found from the