OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2480, 5 June 1915, Page 11

OUR BABIES.

i Oh, they're wonderful. The whole 3 thing has been an eye-opener for rao. - Women —they're angels." What most impressed one in the 3 organisation of our British nurses wae 5 the entire absence of the picnic spirit. r You never see our British ntirsss in a , situation which suggests philandering. 3 Their uniform has liotMilg about It of > tho comic opera. They always appear b to have business on hand—serious, intellectual, and important "business —and - they are to be seen m great numbers j going about this business in a maanei , which convinces one of their unquesi tioning allegiance to military discipline. l Their deration to Tommy Atkins is - typical of their whole spirit. While they admire him enormously, their at- . titude is mainly indulgent and materi nal. That is to say, these bright, clever, i and superior creatures regard Tommy • Atkins as a child, and treat him as a child—a marvellously brave, admirable, i and heroic child, but still a child. He must be an exceedingly green re- [ cruit who dares to tell one of these i nurses an exaggerated story of the trenches—such a story as figures in tho letters of Thomas Atkins to his less critical wife, or his entirely uncritical mother. But tho courage of women is as great as tho courage of the soldier. A British man was tolling me about that one frightful night at Ypres when German shells rained without cessation hour after hour upon the already battered town. "At last," ho said, "the order was given for the French nuns to leave the wounded and retire to Poperinghe. They begged the authorities to be allowed to stay, some of them indeed refused to go, but in the end they were marched out of the hospital and shepherded to Poperinghe, about six miles away. Two of iliose nuns, directly they were left alone at Poperinghe, started off and tramped back through the rain and the darkness to Ypres, whore, the shells" were still falling with the most horrible racket you can imagine." He paused for a moment, then added, ".Ami Die men they were nursing woro Germans." The Lamp of Florence Nightingale. When all is said about the volunteer workers one conies back with an ever increasing admiration to tho British hospital nur.se, who is the good angel of Tommy Atkins and the spirit of love, breaking up and shining through tho wrack of hate, murder, and destruction. You can have no idea until you see it for yourself how the presence of these blight-faced women makes a beauty of the hospital ward, and quito transfigures all the inexpressible horror of carnage. The little lamp lighted by Florence Nightingale is now being carried by the darkness and suffering and death. The soul of womanhood moves like a caressing wind through the pesthouse of man's brutality. One goes into a military hospital prepared to bo horrified, shocked, and dreadfully shaken, but come? out feeling that tho end of our blunderings is at hand, and that the spirit of women is destined to closo one car of man's history with tho healing hand of restoration, and to open another with the hand which science has blest and love has sanctified. How the heart of tho wounded man yearns and cries out for the touch of a woman's hand, and what a heaven may be made of hell by a little mothering.—"The Scottish Chronicle."' Woods' Groat Peppermint Cure, For Cousbsand Colds never fails. Is. Cd.»

fBT HYGEIA.I Published under the euspiow o! the Bocioty for the Health of Women and Obildxeu. ~. . "It is wiser to nut ap ft fence the too of <l precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." COOL, DRY AIR V. WARM, MUGGY AIR. Most people nowadays liave at least some vaguo idea that piu'o air—air moro or less unpoisoned by our breatli —is a matter of importance; but aro thei'G are many, people who realiso tho | value of the coldness of the air wo breath© and freedom from excessive ■ moisture? The air which we givo off > is not merely poisoned; it is also un- : duly warmed and laden with moisture. i It is only of late years (since man- [ kind began to realise that the use of j cold, fresh air was the only fundamental i basis for the treatment of consumptives) i that we have come to understand truly r fcho harmful effects of undue warmth - and moisture, and the invigorating ef--1 fects of cold, dry air, , So important are coldness and dj-y----1 ness of the air we live in (especially l coldness) that leading authorities have i begun to question whether these quali- ■ ties may not play a more important ) part in health and vigour than freedom 3 from poisonous impurities. 3 Dr. Leonard Hill, as the result_of a a wide series of experiments at King a i College, London, has been able to ae- - monstrate that people feel comparaf tively fit and well in rooms where a t large quantity of carbonic acid gas has 3 been allowed to accumulate, provided ? the air is kept constantly circulating - by means of fans, and he shows that r the benefit arises from the stimulation - of the skin and the bracing-up of the - whole nervous system by the stimulatf ing qualities of cool air in motion, or, > as ho calls it, "streaky air." He - points out that this quality of streakiness —the quality which we object to under the name of draughts —is really highly beneficial, provided it be not exa cessive and not applied suddenly to per- , sons who have been enfeebled and eiier- - vated by coddling and habitual avoida ance of exercise and proper stimulation by cold. 6 Dr. Hill draws attention to the enori mous difference there is between the t air of a room uniformly heated by hot I pipes and the effects of an open fire- . place. Sitting at a comfortable dis-

le tance from an open fire, wo have 5. warmth in front of us and coolncss behind—tho cold air passing by us and io keeping part of us relatively cool, la while another part is warmed. In t. other words, wo have what Dr. Hill a calls a streaky effect, and this is al- ;. ways stimulating and invigorating. A if moderate open fire warms the air of a r room comparatively little, its warming i- effects being expended mainly on tho d walls and furniture, and ourselves, ■s while tlie incoming fresh air, passing ir by us on its way to the fire, remains s- cool and stimulating. 3- The reader may say: "But so far as s dryness is concerned, if dryness of tho 0 air is beneficial, the advantage should surely bo with tho air heated by hot pipes." However, this is not so. The > open lire promotes ventilation and the y carrying away of the breath with its 1 burden of moisture, and the dryness of > stove-heated or pipe-heated air has not the beneficial effects of more naturally dried air. e 6 SHOULD BEDROOMS BE HEATED. 0 s From what has been said, it might 1 be supposed that one would advocate b the use of an open fire in a bedroom, . especially for babies, m winter time, t This is far from being the case. The i less a baby is subjected to artificial . warming the better. In the day time, j- if baby happens to be in a room heat- , ed, however ideally, by an open fire, :i the best place for the cradle is as far d as possible from the fireplace—apart, - of course, from the question of bathing, i when a cosy corner is desirable. At 1 night the air of tho bedroom is never 1 too cold for a healthy baby, provided the bed is properly made (see pages 85 and 160 "Feeding and Care of Baby"), and screened if necessary from undue i draughts. Indeed, very delicate babies can bo habituated to sleeping in very cold air, and tend to be strengthened and invigorated, provided the change from coddling is gradual and strict at- , tention is paid to suitablo bedding and i clothing. Li some cases a hot bottle is desirable, but even in this matter the mother must be warned against the enfeebling effects of undue warmth, and especially the grave risks of catching cold' if a hot bottle is placed in the bed in such a way as to cool dipwn comparatively Quickly, overheating the child at first and then leaving it chilled and miserable. The degree of artificial heat supplied in this way should never be hign, and the warmth should be distributed as eveuly as pessib|e throughout tho time when the bottle is in use. This can easily be ensured by paying due attention to tho instructions given on page 85 "Feeding and Care of Baby." Tho Plunket Nurses all reirark that they can genorally tell at a glance tho "cool, fresh air baby" from the "coddled baby"—tlicy know at onco the baby who is kept a sniuch out of doors as possible, and who when indoors livos in rooms with the wide-open windows, from tho indoor baby that lives in more or less sealed rooms, especially m a warm kitchen. The fresh, cool air baby tends to have rich red blood, rosy cheeks, and firm flesh while the coddled baby tends to bo pale, pasty, and flabby. Wo shall always have 40 per cent, of rejects among our young men wanting to fight their country's battles as long as the majority of babies are coddled in infancy and brought up the wrong