LECTURE BY LADY PLUNKET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 88, 10 May 1909, Page 3

LECTURE BY LADY PLUNKET.

The Town Hall was densely packed on JViday night with tin amlienee ot enthusiastic ladies to hear an address given by her Excellency Lady PlunKet on "The care and feeding of babies." Lady I'lunket, accompanied by -Miss Hill, was received by the committee of the* local Society for th e Promotion of the Health of Women and Children, and was introduced to her audience by Mrs. Dockrill, the president of the Society. Lady I'lunket said s'hc had come lo Xew Plymouth unprepared to give an address, and was without her various diagrams, lists of statistics, notes nd objects of practical use that she always had with her on such occasions, slich as a folding cot and a light airy perambulator hood, etc. Her Excellency imViressed on mothers the great gain to the lie.-.lth and strength conferred on their olfspring through feeding them as nature directs, but advised those physically unlitte'd for nursing to use the humanised milk as prepared by Dr. Truby King, a food as nearly approach ing human milk as' science could make it. Patent foods were to be avoided; tlicy were all deficient in various ways and built up fat, but siot healthy children. Soothers, also, were condemned as insanitary. 4lf a child constantly cried and needed such comfort, it evident!} was ill and needed treatment and careful feeding. The pram hood made oi American leather should be done away with, as it prevented the fresh air from circulating freely about the child, and also kept him in such a .stat c of heat that when taken from the carriage into the cold ai r he was most liable to take a chill. Lady Flunket spoke in great praise of the "Plunket" nurse's workin JTi'W Plymouth. This lady has already under her care 30 babies who were ailing more or less, but under her treatment they were now steadily imAnd these little invalids were being fed on humanised milk specially prepared each day by the nurse herself. The nurse sometimes, in hor day's work, had to walk eight miles. This, added to the great strain naturally re.-ulting from the responsibility of her cases, was more than she could do foranylength of time. It \va»' not possible to work contiiiuou-dv at such high prosJ (aire. Lady Pllinkin suggested thaithere might be someone in the town who would give the Society a bicycle for tl)e -nurse', ntc. Tlits, would he a solution of the whole dilliculty. as she would then spend little time in going from house to house and could see many more babies. Her I'Acclleucy,.wished to disabuse people's minds of the erroneous idea that the nurse was working !u opposition to the doctors of the town. On the contrary, sh,. was. working in conjunction with them. She would s'ce (bat their orders were rightly carried out. and in case that she attended could advise th,. mothers when the doctor'* '| help was essential.

'flic nurse's fund should receive ail Hie help possible iroin the public. Warnock, with many other women of lipr profession, was* .helping to build up a line race of men and women that would go to make our Kmpire. for it ■was in the lialiies of our •'>•.,ntry that (he -;' cd.< <if dcgenera:v w, >v sown, and it was ou r ),„l>ies that must be eared . for. Lady Plnnket reminded her audionce that the expenses ill connection with the Society's work were heavy, i and as the advice of the nurse was given free, there was no income. The ■ only source of revenue lay in the members' »'ubscriptio-,is. She therefore ftsked as many ladies as possible to join the ranks of the Society and thus help . on this crusade against ignorance. On Hie motion of Mi's Dockvill. a very hearty vote of thanks was accorded to i Lady Plunket for her interesting and i helpful address.