CHANGES IN MOTHER'S MILK UNDER WAR CONDITIONS

The lactating human mother is responsive to her own nutritive conditions, as are the milk-producing females of other species. Poor food, underfeeding and bodily hardships are likely to decrease the flow of milk whenever these instigators of unsatisfactory nutrition arise. Hence an inability to nurse their young adequately has been noted in the case of many mothers of warring peoples ever since statistics of this sort have been deemed worthy of record in medical literature. The countries of Europe have not escaped the consequences of an unsatisfactory milk supply as it affects nursing mothers, who have been compelled to endure unusual dietary restrictions both in quantity and in quality of available nutrients during the past four or five years. Actual inability to nurse the young has been reported from centers where the food stringency was the greatest; and since the best substitute for human milk, namely, cow's milk, has also