Failure to gan or actual loss of weight is a common condition in young infants which has been a subjec of disussion for centuries, and m the past there was a tendency to regard wasting as a clinical entity. This conception is entirely wrong (Parsons, 1924); it is but a symptom of some underlying condition and i in this respect comparable wnth odter common symptoms such as vonming, convulions, and diarrhoea, none of which is regarded as a diseae sui generis. The causes of severe wasting may be classified under two main headings, (a) insufficient food, and (b) presence of infection. nsufiient food may be due to quantitative or qualtative defects m the diet or it may be the result of inpaired absorption from the ahmentary tract due to disease or diarrhoea. It may also be due to insuffiEent food reaching the intesine, as in abnormal conditions of the oesophagus or of the stomach, for example, pyloric stenosis. It is dilicult in some cases to separate lack of food from the presence of infection as the cause of wasting, because vomitingand diarrhoea and intolerance of food may be the result of infection and so introduce the starvation factor. Conversely, the infant who is not receiving adequate food is more liable to infection than the one whose nutrition is normal. In treating states of malnutrition it is always xnessary to discover the underlying cause, for unl this is removed, the measures desgned to arrest the progress of wasting will probably fail.

Failure to gan or actual loss of weight is a common condition in young infants which has been a subjec of disussion for centuries, and m the past there was a tendency to regard wasting as a clinical entity. This conception is entirely wrong (Parsons, 1924); it is but a symptom of some underlying condition and i in this respect comparable wnth odter common symptoms such as vonming, convulions, and diarrhoea, none of which is regarded as a diseae sui generis. The causes of severe wasting may be classified under two main headings, (a) insufficient food, and (b) presence of infection. nsufiient food may be due to quantitative or qualtative defects m the diet or it may be the result of inpaired absorption from the ahmentary tract due to disease or diarrhoea. It may also be due to insuffiEent food reaching the intesine, as in abnormal conditions of the oesophagus or of the stomach, for example, pyloric stenosis. It is dilicult in some cases to separate lack of food from the presence of infection as the cause of wasting, because vomitingand diarrhoea and intolerance of food may be the result of infection and so introduce the starvation factor. Conversely, the infant who is not receiving adequate food is more liable to infection than the one whose nutrition is normal. In treating states of malnutrition it is always xnessary to discover the underlying cause, for unl this is removed, the measures desgned to arrest the progress of wasting will probably fail.

Since the year 1939, when preparations of protein digests became generally available in America, reports of investigations designed to test their value in the parenteral feeding of infants have appeared from time to time.' Amigen,' an enzymic digest of hydrolysed casein, is one of these preparations.amounts are contained in 'casydrol' (1 7-2 5 per cent.) in 5 per cent.glucose solution given at a rate of about 6 ml. per kg.(or 3 ml.per lb.) each hour.Blood and plasma which are sometimes given as part of the daily infusion, have a somewhat lower calorie value (20 instead of 28 per 100 ml.).59 11