OUR BABIES.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14836, 29 November 1913, Page 6

OUR BABIES.

("Weokly f rest and Referee. ,, ) I have had sent to mc the August number of ''National Health," a~ journal (published in London) of State, municipal, and voluntary health administration, with the following heading:—"This organ is officially recognised by the National League for Physical Education and Improvement, the Association of Infant Consultations and Schools for Mothers, the National Association for tho Prevention of Infant Mortality and for the Welfare Infancy, tho Mansion Houso Council for Health and Housing, and tho National Food Reform Association, and is eupported by their influence—a- fairly' substantial list of societies and associations dealing with questions of health. Tho editorial deals with tho Infant Mortality Conference to be hold in London that month, and wo read: "In the medical .section the subjects to be deait with are tho necessity,-for special education in infant hygiene', and antenatal hygiene. Among our coiomes Now Zealand has taken a foremost place in promoting health legislation, so that considerable interest will attach to tho contribution from l>r. Tru'oy King, of Dunedin, on tho New Zealand scheme for promoting the health of women and children.' In this column you have read recently "Hygeia's" impressions of the conference,* and of the need in England for more systematic teaching applied to all classes, and it is interesting to read in an article in this journal. entitled "Tho Trend- of Medico-Social ■Effort in Child : Welfare Work" .by Wilbur C. Phillips*, New York; of the growing demands for such organisation as our own society. He says:—"ln tho child-welfare movement for public health two forces have been particularly iactive—those" embraced by .Hie medical profession on the ono hand, and those of tho so-called social workers on the other., At,first the line of demarcation between these two forces was quite'distinct. Of late years it has been growing less so. Students of, sociology to-day clearly recognise that most of the problems which social ana philanthropic agencies. are endeavourin<? to solve are health problems; while, pn*the other hand, the fact is also beginning to be apparent that most or the diseases which physicians and health authorities are treating and endeavouring; to rectify have their origin in social causes. Reflect for a moment on the work carried out by such agencies as committees _on tho prevention of tuberculosis, milk committees, and committees for the prevention of blindness. These activities indicate how deeply tho philanthropic world is delving in health problems. On tho other hand, consider that most .of this effort, begun in a purely charitable or: philanthropic spirit, has found, or is finding, its way into , our' health, departments, and that many of our leading hospital experts, recognising that they cannot even properly diagnpeo and prescribe without understanding the social conditions under which their patients live, are establishing bureaus of. social service, in the charge of nonmedical workers. Consider these things, I say, and you will agree with mc, I thiuk. that health work is fast developing beyond those limits wherein tho medical practitioner has long been wont to held uninterrupted sway.

■ _ "Slowly, but surely, a new concept ■is dawning in the minds of these, who are ,working and thinking on those problems. Slowly but turely we are coming to realise that even the ethical .character, of-a people has its baiw in. physiology; that this thing we call henlth is the foundation.and source of civic righteousness, and that everything which touds to deprive any man or woman, youth or maid; boy or girl, of an essential to its physical growth or development, is a wrong, not only pbyeically. but intellectually, morally, and spiritually, against this and succeeding generations." . - . ■ - He gees on to say:—"Doctors and social workers alike are beginning to recognise that, while corrective treatment of existing sickness will remain a factor for a long time to come, emphasis must be placed more and more on the development of preventive j measures. It hns become axiomatic to say that it is moro important to teach mothers how to keep their babies wp!l than to cure them after they are sick..

"It takes skill and training to correct a deranged digestion. It takes simple common-sense, combined /with a knowledge of what constitutes wholesome food and right living, to prescribe a regimen which will make a deranged digestion an impossibility. "Teachers do not r.eod to bo scientists. The laws of health, like the law* of. astronomy and mathematics, need only to bo understood, propagated, aud obeyed to secure beneficent results. , "And because the physician (except where he is directly connected with some organised' social effort) has no spare time for social teaching, the problem of dealing with the ignorance which he has pointed out as a chief cause of infant mortality, like the problem of improving the purely physical properties of milk, has passed into other hands."-