OUR BABIES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 86, 8 October 1910, Page 15

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia.) I

Publishes under the auspices of th« Society for the Promotion oi the Health bf Women and Children. • "H i* wiser to put up a fence sit the top of a prfecipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." THE FIGHT FOR PURE MILK.' Three successive numbers of our "Parliamentary Debates" for the last week of August and the first week of September, are largely occupied by a spirited discussion of the pros and cons of the Hon. Dr. Collins's plea for a "purer milk supply." The -debate covers no fewer than 50 columns of Hansard. The ■motion before the. Legislative Council reads as follows :— I be^i to' move that, in the opinion of this Council, further legislative measures are necessary to ensure a pprer milk supply to the inhabitants of the chief- dties of the Dominion. Everyone agrees as to the need for a pure water/ supply. It is amazing that anyone should doubt the equal importance of ensuring pure milk supplies , for cities, seeing that cows' milk is not only a practically universal beverage, but is generally the main food during the first few years of life* whether the child be suckled or fed artificially. CONTAMINATION IN THE HOME. At the close of his reply Dr. Collins said :—: — I am Very pleased that we have had such a long and useful discussion on this important matter, because 'I feel sure the more the subject is discussed aM the public hear of it, the more it will sink, into their minds and lead them to, think about the milk that they are handling. * ,• The measure of the purity of the milk" supply of a place might be stated to be the mortality there is in the community amqhg infants under one year of age, and I undertake to say that if you Jiave a, pure milk supply the mortality among infants uncler one' year will be lessened, and if you can lessen that morality you improve the general health statistics of the country. Moreover, I think that if you have a pure milk supply, free fram bacilli — and especially the bacillus of tuberculosis — the amount of <• tubercular disease in the joints and abdominal cavity of children will be lessened. While, the attention which has been devoted to the matter has lessened to a large extent, the amount of tuberculosis of the lungs, the amount of tuberculosis in the abdominal cavity and in the • joints of children has not been lessened at all What I hope this discussion will have done is, in the first place, that it will have brought the matter before the people who have to take the milk from the door into their houses.'' ' I believe that one of the chief trpuljles with milk is that when it is poured into a -p erson ' s J ll g» tnat jug is very often allowed to stand uncovered (and there lias been no sterlis,ing at tfie jug, before the milk was poured into it). ... I should like to emphasise that point, because I believe that a great deal of impurity gets into the milk after it is taken into the house, j and that that impurity ought to be obviated by the cleanliness of the individuals themselves. Note by 'Hygeia" .-—The general verdict of Dr. Newman and other public health authorities in England is to the effect that bad as are the conditions in many dairies/ the contamination and' deterioration of milk that takes- piace in the household is, on tho whole, even more serious than the pollution prior to delivery ; hence the need for giving giuls and mothers practical instruction, in this among other aspects of the hygiene of the home. Babies suffer m<iiniy through the ignorance and carelessness of well-intentioned mothers —the carelessness of ignorance. We women have not been negligent—we .simply haven't known, and • reliable means of acquiring the necessary practical knowledge has not been available. "Unfortunately, .most women don't know that they don't know. On the contrary, they think that they do, and the grandmothers are sure of it ! This shows the need for a society organised, for helping and impressing mothers of all classes in a simple, straightforward, homely, acceptable, and convincing way by means of specially*trained nurses j also by consistent, authoritative, printed advice, penetrating to every part of the Dominion and inviting enquiry. By the v.-ay, regarding the keeping of milk, the mother will find the essentials given on pages 25 and 26 of Hie society's book,. "The Feeding and Care of Baby.'-? As a woman living always in the country, T can Tead, with less surprise and shock than some of our legislators, the revelations made during the recent debate as to the uncleanness of milk v/hen delivered in, Wellington — to say nothing of the impurities that accumulate during 1 transit to the city, during delivery, and in the houses of the people. However, nauseating as such revelations are to all of us, jthey serve, a^ Dr. Collins says, a very necessary purpose : they tend to arouse people out of a fool's paradise. There is no use "ostriching" in such matters — better frankly face the issue, and amend matters accordingly. Perhaps the most" significant hint as to what are apt to be the conditions of stockyards, milking sheds, cows and milkers, is afforded by the fact that Tough, healthy country lads (by no means hypersensitive as a class) commonly decline to drink milk. If one presses for a reason the youth replies, with a look of disgust and' a meaning shrug of his shoulders :—"lf: — "If you had seen as much of the milking of cows as 1 have you'd not ask that question !" Again, there is a common saying : "Town people like to drink milk, country people don't" ; they kn6w too much. WHAT ABOUT THE BABY !

£3.000.000