CHILD LIFE IN EUROPE.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14842, 6 December 1913, Page 4

CHILD LIFE IN EUROPE.

DR. TRUBY KING'S EXPERIENCES

Orson ora ovrx co&kb**obvkbx.\ LONDON. October 29. After the dose of the series of medical conferences in London, Dn and Mrs Truby King went on the Continent, where they have spent some six weeks studying the conditions of infant life, especially in France, Germany and Austria. •

Distinguished foreign professors who attended the London conferences wero extremely helpful in providing Dr. and Mrs King with the entree to institutions of interest, and they had exceptional opportunities of acquiring _ information. Giving mo his impressions of what he saw, Dr. Truby King »ud:— "While there are a number of special humanitarian agencies at work in all the great European centres, the conditions as regards motherhood and child life are not what they ought to be, and they become on the whole, more and more unfavourable as one travels eastward. This is sufficiently indicated, by tho mere figures of the infantile deathrate which is about 12 per cent, in Paris, from 15 to 18 per cent, in lierlin and Vienna, and, say, 25t0 30 per cent, in Hungary and Russia. "In spite of the large amount of scientific work done in the hospitals and other institutions and the invaluable researches which are being mado, and which must in the long run tend to reduce disease, it is singularly disappointing to find how very little is really being effected in a practical way for the great mass of the populations as regards safeguarding mother and child. Comparatively little ii attempted in the way of health-education, and what is done is. practically confined to the submerged or indigent classes. The reason given for this, especially in Austria, is that, the problem of poverty is such a great ono that the oaro of the poor in the meanwhile monopolises attention. Illegitimate children bulk seriously in some parts. In certain provinces of Austria the illegitimate rate is more than 25 per cent, of the births. These children are mostly boarded out with peasants, and wo were authoritatively told that in such circumstances the death-rate is a very gravo ono, about 20 per cent, of tho babies dying within the first twelve months. There are villages where perhaps 500 of such children aro in the care of peasants, who receive the equivalent of about 3s per week. "However, the general lack of fitness, the fearful prevalence of rickets, and the excessive infantile mortality of Eastern Europe appear te mc to be more attributable to ignorance and to not making tho best of unfortunate circumstances than to,the actual circumstances themselves. Simple hygienic education of the whole mass of the peoplo on proper lines'would be most beneficent. The Plunket Nurses could do an infinity of good in Europe, not only in: regard to fresh air, but in giving rational instruction as to the feeding of children, the necessity for exercise, and the baleful effects of restrictive clothing. Everywhere throughout Europe babies are still closely swaddled and prevented from kicking during the first quarter, and often during the first six months of life. "Taking the whole mass of the populations, there is no doubt that there would be a great lowering of the infantile death-rate and a corresponding improvement in the general health of the comm unities if the people could only be got to realise and adopt the simple primary hygienio" -equirements of life. For instance, if they could be led to crave for cool, fresh, pure air, instead of preferring to s -relter in • foul, m u_gy» used-up air, it would/be an enormous advance. Practical hygienic training is especially necessary in, Germany, and Austria where the heating of rooms by closed stoves, and tho a£ sence' of open fireplaces (which are so valuable as ventilators), is; practically universal. Tbis lowers thextandard of health all round, a .

I 'One\has onlyto overlook the : tops of Continental buildings, and compare them for example with the house-tops of London, to realise, the sort of air the inmates must breathe. Continental: houses don't breathe—all Englibh houses do, more or less. Travelling anywhere oh the Continent, the one complaint we find made by English people ,; is as to ilieir inability to get permission from their fellow-travellers to open the windows of railway carriages, even when the weather is quite genial." Dr. Truby King found on all hands tho greatest interest evinced in tho extremely low infantile mortality for New ZenlamJ, and the stons which are being taken to make it etiU'-Wer.-

An interesting remark which he made was that when dininrc in a "private house in Vienna he happened to sneak of a bust of Hochstetter at the University, it transpired that the family whose guest he was were near relatives of the scientist so well known in New Zealand, and who has left his name in so many places. '.■-.-"•'■" r ■.'*'- •',■■■-:'_■"':-'■■.■'■"' ■

Dr. King's book, "Feeding and Care of Baby." has been accepted for publication by Messrs Mocmillan and Co. ,