harmful, it should be granted; but if it is not granted no harm will
come to the child.

Remarkable instances in which disgusting substances have been craved
and eaten are often talked about and have even found their way into
popular novels. The unfortunate victims of these unnatural cravings
are not of sound mind. With reference to them a physician of
unusually broad experience wrote fifty years ago, "I have never met
with any example of this sort; which leads me to infer that these
longings are more frequent in books than in the practice of our art."
This conclusion is even more fully justified to-day than when
originally expressed.

THE RELATION BETWEEN THE MOTHER'S DIET AND THE SIZE OF THE CHILD.--
With the beginning of careful, scientific study of the nutritional
problems of pregnancy, investigators were interested to learn the
source of the material which was used to build up the child's body.
Two possibilities suggested themselves: one that the material came
from the mother's food and the other that it was derived from her own
flesh. In order to determine which of these methods was the natural
one, animal experimentation was resorted to and gave identical
results in the hands of independent observers. It was found, as I
have already stated, that the same diet which had previously kept an
animal's weight constant was sufficient to meet her requirements
during pregnancy and also to provide for the growth of her offspring.
The mother animal was actually found somewhat heavier at the
termination of pregnancy than at the beginning. It seemed fair to
conclude, therefore, that nutrition had proceeded along more economic
lines, and that under these conditions the customary diet had
furnished the material for the formation of the young. Still other