OUR BABIES.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14110, 1 August 1911, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

(Br Htoku.) (■Weekly Press and Beferee. ,, )

THE SMALL FAMILY. (Concluded.)

I shall not donl further with this subject in tl ic meantime, beyond sayjrr n t hat, in his recent address afc tho annual meeting of the Central branch of our Society. Professor Benham referred at some length to the unwillingness of women to become mothers as due in part \o tho difficulty in getting domestic servants, and to tho fact that the work in the household was not simplified as much as it might be by the use of labour-saving appliances and clovicos. This point was further alluded to at the same meeting by Dr. Truby King, who pointed out how much saving both of monetary expenditure and of labour coiila be effected in the home if all mothers were properly trained in the essentials of home work, and taught the relative values of different foods and tho best, simplest, most practical and hygienic ways of preparing them. Further, he emphasised the enormous saving of time and worry that resulted from keeping babies healthy and content throughout by feeding them as they should be fed", only six times in the twenty-four hours from birth, instead of texi times, and by never getting thorn into tho bad habit ol waking up and being fed at night. T>r. Benham next dealt with the important question :— ARE THE FIT Oft THE UNFIT INCREASING? In considering the birth-rate it would be interesting to find out exactly whether the decrease affects all classes of the community equally. I use the word class not in any invidious sense, but in an hygienic sense— that is, I refer to a category of sound, healthy people, and a' category or c!a.ss of unsound people—the one" class of definito civic worth, tho other without civic value. The worth of a man or woman may be estimated by the amount of useful work he or she can do for tho community—and he may bo an artisan or a professional man: each may contribute something of value. Tho question is: Does the decrease in the birth-rate affect these two categories equally? I>o the men and women of sound mind and body contribute equally to the population with those of unsound mind and body? So far as I can ascertain, our statistics do not enable one to answer this question for New Zealand, but in other parts of the world it has been established that the birth-rate is unequally shared, being lower in one class than in the other, and. unfortunately for tho future of the raco. it is lower in just that class or category of parents that are of greatest civic worth. The birth-rate is actually increasing in tho classes of no civic worth in England, where tho average" number of births per marriage is '1.6. but in tho unfit members of society it is 7.5. "VVe must constantly bear in mind that, according to all our biological knowledgo, heredity is of more importance than environment, and it is feared that the children of tho lcjs valuable class will hand down their deficiencies to their offsnring. Hence tho raco is tending to deterioration.

BABIES BORN HEALTHY. ILL-HEALTH DUE TO IGNORANCE. Wo learn from medical statistics that about 90 per cent, of all. babies nro born physically healthy, and the great number which die before they roach the ago of twelve months is due, in part at least, to the ignorance of tho mothers as to how to feed and care for the infants. It appears that a weakly baby, one that is nob actually diseased, is usually tho result of insufficient nutrition. <?f the mother during tho months preceding birth, and it appears that the mothers are often unaware of the necessity of keening their own health good, of taking suitable and abundant food during these months, which are all-important for tho future babe. We must not forgot that tho babies of to-day are tho parents of the next generation; they actually bear within their bodies at the time of birth the germ cells which will develop into new babies, and on the inborn soundness of these babies will depend tho health of the future generation. The germ plasm of which these germ cells consists is by biologists believed to bo continuous from one generation to another; it is everlasting, and tho parents are, therefore, merely the trustees for the race; it behoves them to jjuard these germ cells with all care in a perfectly healthy condition.