The infant : nutrition and management / by Eric Pritchard.

  • Pritchard, Eric, 1864-1943.
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The infant : nutrition and management / by Eric Pritchard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/280 (page 9)
    On purely hypothetical grounds we should naturally assume that the stimulus afforded by the sucking of the infant itself would be more effective in bringing about the reflex activity of the glands than any other form of excitation; it is, however, satisfactory to know that this theoretical assumption has been substantiated by the practical observations of Dr. Jessie G. Duncan.1 In a series of experiments carried out in Birmingham, Dr. Duncan was able to prove that the amount of milk which the pump was capable of extracting from the breast was in all cases considerably less than that which was obtained by the natural efforts of the infant. Further, we have ample evidence from the ex¬ periences of the late Pierre Budin2 that the total quantity of milk secreted by a nursing-woman is directly proportional to the intensity of the stimulus applied. A weakling baby, with feeble powers of sucking, extracts only a small quantity of milk, whereas a strong, lusty baby secures as a rule a good meal. In his book, The Nursling, he supplies the protocols of the actual amounts of milk sup¬ plied by a number of wet-nurses employed in his clinics. Some of the women acted as foster-mothers to two, three, four, or more infants, and the tables show that the greater the demand the greater was 1 Report on Infant Mortality. Birmingham, 1913. Printers: Hudson and Son. 2 The Nursling, Pierre Budin. English translation, first edition, p. 37.