Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/704

686 and play, or cry, or sleep, as it will. The neighbor's nerves are not weak as far as children's crying is concerned. The day-nurseries which benevolence has established for the care of these little ones are truly a blessing to poor mothers, who earn their living by washing and scrubbing. The babies are well fed, amused, and generally well cared for, far better than in their own homes; the mothers pay from five to ten cents a day out of their wages. But more often the poor baby has brothers and sisters, and they take care of it almost entirely.

Many city infants perish from bad feeding. More especially is this true of the tenement-children. The youngest member of the family is placed at the common table at an incredibly tender age. Often in the dispensary in response to the question, "With what are you feeding your baby?" comes the reply, "It eats what we all do." With these people, even if they are not extremely poor, milk or anything else purchased especially for the baby, is an item of extra expense, and therefore it is considered easier and cheaper to feed it with the rest of the family. The sins of feeding among the poor people are monstrous. Coffee, tea, brandy-and-water, as well as beer, had been fed to babies from their nursing-bottle! With such a régime of feeding for the poor and middle classes, it is no wonder that two and a half times as many infants perish of diarrhœal disorders as of any other disease.

City infants of all classes are at a disadvantage in regard to their food. Unfortunately, city mothers who nurse their own children are fewer than those in the country. The search for a wet-nurse is one of the most disheartening. The supply is in no way proportioned to the demand. A woman of the poorer classes who has any home at all must stay in it and look after it for her husband, even if she were willing to give up her child for the sake of the money. The woman who applies for the position as wet-nurse has either been deserted by her husband or has had none. She must depend upon her own exertions for the support of herself and her child. If she finds a place as wet-nurse she earns from twenty to thirty dollars per month and a good home, for it is only the well-to-do who can afford to hire her. She usually rules the household with a rod of iron. Since, as a general thing, she comes to take care of a puny child who can not live without mother's milk, and recognizes that the family are dependent upon her, she is exacting and aggravating, oftentimes almost beyond endurance. It is only because the thralldom will not last forever that it is tolerated. The wet-nurses obtain their positions through agencies which exist in the large cities and through advertisements. The necessity for a thorough investigation of the health and status of the applicant for such a position by the family physician is imperative, and in recommending one he takes upon himself a grave responsibility. The wet-nurse will generally try to deceive as to the age of her baby, that she may make her milk appear desirable. The best evidence is the