March 23, 2020
1 min read
Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAmGiving Babies Solid Food Is Illegal in France
Originally published in August 1892
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"French science has to deal with a peculiar problem, how to prevent the depopulation of the country, which is now going on so rapidly that deaths exceed the births by nearly 40,000 a year. At a recent meeting of the new Society for the Protection of Children, Dr. Rochard stated that 250,000 infants die yearly, of whom at least 100,000 could be saved by intelligent care. Stringent laws have been already passed to aid in preventing this great waste of life. It is now illegal for any person to give children under one year of age any solid food except on medical advice, and nurses are forbidden to use nursing bottles having rubber tubes. Efforts are being made also to induce Parisian mothers to nurse their own infants."
—Scientific American, August 1892
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