VICTIMS OF THE STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1252, 7 October 1911, Page 11

VICTIMS OF THE STRIKE.

DEATH TO THE BABIES. Tho groat railway and transport strikes aro still tho topic of tho hour, Bays the English correspondent of an Australian paper. As a rulo such problems are not of much intrest to tho average housewife. She leaves the menfolk to muddle, through them as best they can. But the events of (ho last fortnight suggested unexpected dangers for the women and children of England. Nut the least was the threatened shortage in the milk supply of our great cities. The long drought'had already seriously affected tho milk supply. Following upon these factors, tho strike seemed likely to bring death or suffering to hundreds of little, struggling mortals', whose hold upon life is not very secure. The heat wave had already abnormally increased the infantile mortality of London. The deaths of children under two years from summer colic and enteritis averaged twenty a week in May, June, and early July. In the week ending August 19 the figure was 629. The threatened stoppage of the milk trains would have placed London and other large cities under siege conditions. The saving is that "no baby survives a siege.' 5 Howover, the prompt action of tho Government in employing tho military to guard the lines prevented such a catastrophe. Even as it was, there were days when Manchester, which requires a daily milk supply of between 50,000 and 60,000 gallons, only received about 10,000 gallons. The suffering inflicted upon the children in the poorer districts must have been terrible. Strangely enough, the visitation, which caused the, death of 1200 babies in London during the'last fortnight, had been, in a measure, provided against. Owing to the generosity of Mr. Otto Beit, a dispensary had been opened in Soho to givo the London poor a chance of using the Quinton sea-water injection treatment, which has been so successful in Paris. By injecting sea-water under the skin It. Quinton has been saving over 90 per cent, of tho cases of summer cholera brought to him for treatment. The figure is the more remarkable as most of the tiny pn■fients were brought to him in extremis. Cures aro often effected by the Quinton tratment within 2i hours. Babies that appear almost dead, and have been able to retain no food for days, take their milk eagerly; Unfortunately, the mothers of the 629 London children who died from summer colic last week kuew nothing of the Quinton Dispensary. It has only been opened a few weeks. Some good will have come from the sad trouble if it leads to tho new treatment becoming more widely known.