lyze the breast milk of any nursing mother; and
it is quite possible to duplicate the milk according to the analysis,
with chemical exactness, but the two fluids will not be the same. There
is present in the mother's milk something which synthetic chemistry
cannot discover. This something is nature's secret,--it is akin to the
life-giving principle which is contained in the germinal fluid, and in
the hen's egg. We cannot therefore hope to build up an artificial food
that contains this mysterious life-giving principle which is the secret
of the efficiency of maternal milk,--we can only hope to approximate
it. It is possible that we might be successful so far as its nursing
efficiency is concerned, if all children were alike, if all children
were of a uniform standard of health. As a matter of fact, no two babies
are exactly alike. And while the mother of each child undoubtedly
secretes a milk suitable to the degree of healthfulness of her own
child, the same milk might not be equally suitable to another child. The
milk, therefore, that is manufactured to agree with an average mother's
milk is dependent for its success upon the vitality of the child to
which it is fed. If that child is not a well child, according to an
accepted standard, the milk will not agree with it, even though it is
the best possible substitute for an average breast milk.

We have consequently two factors to consider in successful or efficient
artificial feeding:

1. Our inability to duplicate exactly mother's milk.
2. The lack of a uniform health standard in children.

It is the lack of a uniform health standard in children that gives to
artificial feeding all its difficulties. It renders the successful
artificial feeding of children a personal or individual problem. Some
children,--those who approximate a standard of health for their age; in
other words, "well" children,--thrive on a milk modification that
experience has taught us is suitable for well children of their age.
Others, and they are in the majority, have to be fed on a modification
which actual test proves to agree with their digestive capabilities.
Every artificially fed child therefore must be studied from its own
individual standpoint. A certain modification of milk may not agree with
a child fed every two and one-half hours, which will be found to agree
if fed in the same quantity, to the same child, every three hours. The
slightest change, a change which would seem to be