OUR BABIES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13622, 4 January 1910, Page 3

OUR BABIES.

(Br Brosu.)

("Weekly Press and Referee.") I NUTRITION AND- GROWTH. The following extract from an vm- ' portant treatise on children published this year by Dr. Kerley, a noted physician and* professor of diseases of children 'n New York, should be ot great interest to our readers: — The fundamental principles in the life of tho young cf oil animals ore growth and development. This-state-ment applies to the young of the lower animals as well as to man. Nature has fixed and definite laws in accordance with which this growth and development proceed. Tho type of animal produced in no small i degree upon the way we follow out Nature's laws. HEREDITY is. of course, an imp<>£ tank factor, but ENVIRONMENT! counts for more. ' MEMO BY "HYGEIA"'.—ENVIRONMENT, used in this cense, does not mean merely the "surroundings' •: f the child, but includes every niavral and immaterial influence which is brought to bear en him from the time of "his birth, as contrasted with the hereditary or inborn tendencies with which he enters tho world. Thus the fooc*. is an environment, regularity or habits as to feeding, action oii bowels, sleeping, playing, or taking exercise are all, broadly speaking, eruditions of environment, just as much as aro climate, fresh air, sunlight, housing, etc. Tho young of the lower .animals or of man may possess all that can be desired in the way of heredity, but if tha early management of his life is faulty, an adult is produced which is almost certain to fall short of the normal. On the ether hand, another, without .the benefits of a good heredity, ■tvhen given the advantages of faithful scientific care, may produce an adult decidedly superior in all resjppcts to those more fortunate in birth. I havo seen this demonstrated time and again both in the lower animals and in man. From my earliest recollection I have carefully watched the growth and development of animals. By observing care as to feeding, housing, ventilation, cleanliness, and exercise, I have seen animals which promised but little at birth develop into perfect mature specimens of their kind. During the past twenty years I have been intimately associated with thousands of infants and growing children in private, in hospital, and in out-patient work. The .^i;—.ibil'ities of proper growth under gor-d management when little was to be expected, judging from the original condition of the patient, have been imj pressed upon mc repeatedly.

MEMO BY "HVGEIA":—Dr. Kerley might well say, as an eminent physician «ud some, time ago to a sympathetic and appreciative audience at a meeting of the British Association :—"Envikovmext can knock HI'REniTY INTO A COCKED ttAT." It is essential for every mother to realise not cnly how much.good can be done by a favourable environment, but what infinite and irreparable hakm can he done by a had environment. The dummy, the long tub© feeder, unsuitable food, irr.Tnre air, lack of exercise, irregular habits, etc., can all or any <-f them pervert and bring to naurjht the finest heredity for the individual in one generation; what has been built up through the centuries —em, in fact, kneck the besthorn baby in the world into a "cocked hat.-" 'J HE CHILD A FUTURE CITIZEN. The child is here through no choice of hi s own. Ho is to have a future. His | hcclth, vigour, powers of resistance, hnppinees. *md usefulness ns a citizen are determined in no,small degree by the nature of his care during the first fifteen years of his life. He has a right to demand that such care be given him as will be conducive at least to a sound, well-developed body, and this should be our first thought and object regarding him. Consider for a moment the number of occupations/ other than the army and the navy/which require physical fitness before a candidate is accepted. Competition is keen at the (present time, and will be keener in the future. Employers of men and women, whether in the office, the factory, or on the farm, cannot afford to employ the physically weak. NUTRITION STANDS FIRST. The most -mportarit factor in the making of mo-i and wonien is nutrition. It requires no great power of reasoning to appreciate the fact that the child who is fed on suitable food will become a more vigorous, better-developed adult than one who, beginning with his birth and continuing throughout the entire period of his growth, is given only food possessing indifferent tissue-building qualities. Next in importance to food, and following in close succession, are fresh air, cleanliness, cheerful surroundings, and healthful amusements, together with an absence of work of an arduous mature, whether in school or at service. That the offspring of man suffers more from nutritional errors due to the lack of suitable care than do the young of the lower animals is lamentable, but it is a fact nevertheless; The absence of thought and care and of knowledge relating to children is due to the fact that the child as such has apparently no intrinsic value in dollars and cents, whereas the yonng of the lower animals are no small part of their owner's material possessions.