THE HEALTH SOCIETY.

Evening Star, Issue 15027, 8 November 1912, Page 4

THE HEALTH SOCIETY.

The monthly meeting of the Society for the Health of Women and Children was held in the Town Hail to-day ; present —Mrs Callaway (in the chair), Mesdames Joachim, Ansell, .]. M'George, Ramsay. Harris. J. Ross, Theomin, Miss Gow, and the hon. secretary (Mrs Edmond). The Matron of the Karitane-Harris Hospital reported as follows:—New babies admitted, 7; one baby died few hours after admission; discharged, 7; remaining in hospital. 12; visitors for month, 295. These included several delegates from th? Kindergarten Conference. Miss Richmond gave a very inspiriting address to the nurses. Five lectures were given during the month by Drs King, Williams, and Allen. A weekly address was given by the matron. Two nurses commenced Plunket training during the month. The maintenance was £ls 7s 6d.

The Tlunket nurses reported visits paid during the month, 260; babies under care, 414; new cases for month, 29; mothers preparing milk in homes. 117; number of visits kTPlunket room. 108; bottles H.M. specials. 3,631: bottles H.M. ordinary, 2.641. A letter was received from Professor Boys-Smith, Otago University, asking permission for the home science students to visit Karitane Hospital once a week during the summer session to see the work being done there, and to gain practice with the babies. The senior Piunket nurse (Mrs Laing) resumed duty on Wednesday, after her throe months' work in Wellington. The loan of her services was much appreciated bv the Wellington society. 'The Hon. Treasurer (Mrs Theomin) reported having received subscriptions and donations from several old and new members, also a second donation from Join Lunn and Co.

During the month 16 members of the St. John Ambulance Nursing Corps visited the Karitane Hospital, on the suggestion of theiv instructor (Dr Harnett). The matron demonstrated the modifying of cows' milk to make it suitable for babies, and Nurse Morgan (the Plunket nurse-elect for Wellington) showed the members_ of the corps how the infants at the hospital were dressed and their beds made, etc. Arrangements were made in connection with the coming Hospital Saturday, when all present promised to assist in every possible way. During the month Dr and Mrs Truby King have continued the public health mission in Otago, Southland, and Canterbury, under the auspices of the society, and have found people everywhere interested, and anxious to found branches of the organisation. The preparatory work which had been done by the central committees of Dunedin and Invercargill and Christchurch helped enormously, and in some cases the local rommittees were found already formed. In all there are now some 50 branches of the society scattered throughout the Dominion, and when the full organisation is complete it is anticipated that the committees alone will consist of nearlv I.COO members.

The annual meeting of the, society in C'huristehurch was a great success, and there, as .elsewhere in Canterbury, leading doctors gave the highest testimony as to the benefits derived from the. work which the society and the nurses have been carrying on in* the province, since the. formation of the Ghristchurch and Timaru branches some five years ago. This open expression of appreciation.did not limit itself to mere generalisations, but recognised specifically and to the fullest extent that the widespread diffusion of the society's practical help and teaching of borne, hygiene, i:i general, and of the systematic feeding of •children in particular, was making itself felt in all directions and among all classes. The references were most gratifying as to the results achieved in the case of babies wbo could not be fed by natural means, by the proper modification of cows' mill: on simple systematic lines; in other words, by the rise of suitably-adjusted humanised milk for the hundred-and-onc thoughtless, haphazard ways of artificial feeding which had prevailed in the.past. It ivas frankly recognised now that summer diarrhfca. the main scourge of infancy, had been enormously diminished. especially in

Cliristchurch ; that there wa-s a most noticeable and progressive improvement in. the general health of babies, attributable partly to the steady increase in natural feeding, which the Plunket nurses unceasingly advocated. The two most widespread and persistent wrongs to the rising generation which have everywhere confronted Dr and Mrs King in their journeying* through New Zealand had been the continued use of the dummy (even in public institutions; and tlra cruel habit of spoiling babies and childreh by giving them biscuits, chocolates, and sweets of all kinds between meals, predisposing them to decayed teeth, adenoids, and indigestion, and giving them the l>est possible chance of falling victims to every form of debility and sickness, from common colds to consumption.

Prom nil the branches similar encouraging reports are being received. Money is coming to them freely, and what is nowrequired is a sufficiency of certificated •nurses for Plunket training to liii the necessary posts.

Ota-go and Southland are lagging behind tremendously in the matter of school furniture, remarked Mr'YY. Davidson last night during his addrc&s to the School Committees' Association on the work and report of. the recent Education Commission. He. contrasted the difference between the school furniture here awa', as the Scotch say, and. that in the schools in the Wanganui district. There they have single a.nd duaJ desks and -comfortable seats, hero the old -heavy forms and long desk. Ho also emphasised the need of obtaining targcr and better playgrounds, and said that Kensington School had. in the mutter of playground accommodation, only one rival, and that was Newton, , Auckland, whore the people had suggested utilising a cemetery in preference to tliG playground. Mr Davidson was of the opinion that more attention should be givoi" io open-air games at the echooC games such as basket ball. The Lotsehfoerg tunnel, miles long, is now very nearly finished, after six years' labor. Joining the Kander Valley and the li-hone VaJloy in the Alps, it ulli be the tbird longest tunnel in Europe