DR. TRUBY KING’S LECTURE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 90, 29 March 1911, Page 5

DR. TRUBY KING’S LECTURE

“ HEALTH AND FITNESS.” Dr. Truby King’s lecture on “Health and Fitness,” was delivered in St. Matthew’s Hall last night to a large and interested audience. The Mayor (Mr. J. A. Miller) presided, introducing the lecturer in a few appropriate words. Dr. King dealt chiefly with the rearing of children, -which were the makings of a nation. He strongly emphasised the necessity of giving the young proper care and atten tion, especially in the feeding, and advocated the bringing up of infants on the breast wherever possible, and failing tnat, the nearest approach to it, namely, humanised milk so modified and prepared as to approximate its components to that of mother’s milk. Proper food, in which fresh air placed an extremely important part, rest, freedom from undue restrictions in the way of boots and clothing, and plenty of exercise, were the chief factors in producing healthy children. Women, of course, played a very important part in the life of a nation, and it was really far more essential that they should be healthy and strong than the men. He believed in the Plunket and District Nurse Societies, and was strongly in favour of helping mothers by practical teaching in preference to teaching almost exclusively by books. Nowadays, he said, too much attention was paid to merely training the faculties of memory and cognitions in children, and not enough to their physical welfare, but explained that essentially the main requirements for health were the same for adults as they were for children. The leading principles applied all round. Exercise, it was explained, did not mean merely the exercise of voluntary muscles, such as are mainly involved in gymnastics practised indoors for only a short time. Useful as such exercises were, they in no sense did away with the necessity for exercise in a much more extended sense, the stimulation and exercise of the sensory nerves and the whole of the organs involved in spending a rea sonable time daily in open air and sunshine, and in the taking of a cold swim every morning where possible. In the absence of such facilities, the lecturer strongly recommended the cold bath, followed by at least 20 minutes’ active walking exercise. Such habits should be so ingrained in use, both as regards boys and girls, that they would tend to be assumed in the same sense as the habit of washing the- face. It had been proved by statistics that delicate children who were kept away from school until seven years old, grew 42 per cent, more than the strong ones who were sent to school at six years. In England and Wales alone, he said, 300 children died daily, one half of whom should not die, because they were healthy when born, and six times the number of those who died had their future health impaired by the ignorance of their parents. The lecture was concluded by the screening of some very beautiful and interesting pictures of the Tongariro and Ngauruhoe volcano districts, where Dr. King has been spending part of his holiday. Mr. T. E. Nelson very kindly lent and operated the lantern for the occasion. Before leaving for Napiei- this morning, Dr. Truby King expressed himself as delighted with the arrangements made for his lecture, and said that Mr. Nelson's lantern was the best that had ever been used at any of his lectures.