OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 705, 19 September 1914, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an' ambulance at the bottom." HEALTH LESSONS FOR LITTLE CHILDREN. When are we all going to wake up to.the fact that little children ought to be taught the essentials for health, and ought to put these essentials into daily practice, thus forming aimpie hygienic hubita which would endure throughout life? If we could only enlist the sympathy and co-operation of the little ones before it is too late in building themselves strong and fit for the nattle of life, the Medical Inpsector of Schools would soon hav9 a very different story tj tell. As matters stnhd, the schools not. vnly fail to teach the Laws of Healthy Living aa the first and mogt important class of knowledge for a child to acquire, hut, through their unhygienic conditions, stresses, and restrictions, they mostly set an exscnple which.as regardsfresh air, exercise, recreation, etc., is dead against proper growth and development. Ido not know s»nytbing more embarrassing than to ba asked "to say a few words" to an average school on the preservation of health. One has an awkward consciousness all the time that tba acitely critical minds of the abler children mast realise that the .putting in practice oc the things one most strenuously advecates i 3 impossible under cur present education/il provisions. In Germary chidren go to school at 8 o'clock in the moaning, so that they.. may have several hours of open-aic exercise and recreation about midday, while tha sun ia at its best. The Germans found out in their painstaking, systematic way that nothing kept the children —especially the little children —from growing and expanding properly so surely as keeping them confined in class rooms throughout the day, :nd the emission to make adequate provisions for natural romping and playing. Tha Germans are doing their best nowadays to overcome the errors of their national school system, which for a time waa even lees considerate than our own. All over the Continent of Europe and throughout the United States, one of the most enlightened and. striking of recent educational advances is, as we so strongly reminded of lats by the Hon Dr Barrett, of Melbourne, and other authorities who have been lecturing throughout the Dominion on town-planning, etc., the general waking up to tSe necessity of providing proper playgrounds and means of recreation. However, playgiounds would not-be of much use if no adequate time were al'owed for play and exposure to the open air and ' sounlight. - Little childran need these provisions not in homoeopathic doass, but in liberal allowances, and if this were ensured their all-round intelligence and capability would benefit in the long run as much as' their bodies. SOME COMMON QUESTIONS. We are often asked such questions as these: — Don't you think it is quite' time enough to commence teaching physiology when a child arriveß at puberty? la'thsre any simple booklet which could be used at home for teaching children Bimple little necessary things about themselveß so as to help in the formation of healthy habits as soon as possible? My answer to such questions is always to refrr parents to Professor Caiman's simple and admirable little Healtn Prias-r, published by Macmillans. Though it is a book which any small child can understand, the parents generally,say that they find it as interesting and instructive as do their children. Tbe author points out that one can scarcely begin too soon to satisfy a child's natural craving for knowledge about itsulf, and tha simple things needed for its welfare, together with the essential "why" and "wherefore." By the time the child reaches 12 or 14 years of age, other interests have come crowding in, and long before then the poor little captive of the schoolroom hss been ovewhelmed with a mass of information which has qunchsd the natural thirst for knowledge characteristic of budding childhuod. He no longer besieges us with th 9 natural "why" and "what for." We have knocked all that out of him, and he rather resents any attempt on our part to give him information not compulsorily prescribed and useful for examination purposes. "Oh, mother, no more lesson?!" Another very strong argument in favcur of the early teaching of elementary hygiene is the f ict that much can be done between six and 12 year? cf age in the way of compensating for mistakes made in raring during infancy. Thus by proper daiiy exercise the jaws can still be made to grow to some extent and the cheat to expand. However, I have no belief in the utility of teaching physiology in the impractical way in which it is usually taught at sheool—-namely, as a subject to grind up without tje evoking of interest or intelligence, and with no idea of personal application by the pupil to his own daily life and habits. I do not know of any duller, drier, more exacting subject or one mere overloaded with useless lone names and irrelevant facts than physiology aa presented in the ordinary form to school children. Is there :iny book more repugnant to the pupil than tha.average'Tiiysijlogy for Schools?" Yst the airviplv, practical essentials of lhi« very subject aru so interesting whero propsriy presented that a tiviy child is cuicr to be told about them and willing to put what he learns into practice. I hope by giving a page from Col■niamn's Health Primer to induce many parents to procure the book, and to use it beore it is too late.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE UNGRATEFUL. There is no part of the body thiifc is useless. Every part- hss its duty to perform. Suppose your father gave you a knife, and you laid i£ on a shelf and did not use is; suppose you did net even keep ths twt and rust off. Do you think it would be right for him to take the knife away and give it -to your brother, who would make good usa of it and keep it clean and bright? Tbe hair is given us to protect tbe head frcrn cold and tu kosp off the hot raya of the sun. Soma boys wear caps no thick that their hair is useless. Some .men even Eeara to think the hair is of r.o use. They wear hats everywhere. They wear hat? that are hb hard as wood a;id fit so tight that neither air nor fresh blood can get to the scalp. These people are not thankful for their hair, but act as if lhay think it is of no usa whatever. So tbe hair on the oart of the head covered by the hat is taken away from them. Sorae childsen will not eat anything hard. They do not like hard crusts of bread, or tough bread. You would almost think they had false teeth, and were afraid of breaking them by eating anything hard or <nugb. Gams wor.ld do hb well as teeth for'the food they eat. They do not usa their teeth. So the teeth decay,, and ere taken away from them. (Prom "Health Primer," by W. M. f.oiman, 8.A., published by Macmillans, London and New.York). N.B. —I wish any of our readers who may not be in the habit of cutting out the "Our B3bies"column, and keeping the articles for reference would do so this week, because I purpose publishing next week a very for« cible, practical pronouncement by Dr Harry Campbell, to which my piesent article will serve as a fitting introduction.