OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 620, 19 November 1913, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

I Siave had sent to mc the August, number of National Health, a journal published in London, of State, municipal, and voluntary health administration, with (he I'nllov.';i:v: heading:--"Thir- organ is oiiicially recognised by the National Leaue:a for rbvskai Education and Improvement, the Association of Infant Coiisiiiintmns and Schools tor Mothers, th: : Natioai Association for the Provou'iion of Inafnt Mortality ami ;Vir the Yfoifa:e of Infancy, the Mansion Hnure Council for Health ai!ii Housim:, and iho National Food Reform Assnciai km. and is supported by their ;uiiuenr.o-~ a fairly substantial list of societies and associations dealing wiih plications of health/' The editorial deals with the Infant Mortality Conference to be held inj London that month, and we read: — "In the medical ?eetion the subjects to be dealt with are the necessity for epeciai education in infant hygiene and ante-natal hygiene. Among our colonies New Zealand has taken a foremost place in promoting health legislation, so thai, considerable interest will attach to the contribution from Dr Truby King of Dunedin, on the New Zealand scheme for promoting the health of women and children."

In this column you have read recently "Hygeia's" impressions of the conference, and of the need in England for more systematic teaching applied to all classes, and it is interesting; to read in an article in this journal, entitled "The Trend of MedicoSocial Effort in Child Welfare Work," by Wilbur C. Phillipß, of New York, of the growing demands for such oragnisation as our own society. He says: "In the child-welfare movement for public health two forces h.ve been particularly active —thoße embraced by the medical profession on the one hand, and those of the socalled social workers on the other. At first the line of demarcation between these two forces was quite distinct. Of late years it has been growing less so. Students of sociology to day clearly recognise that most of the problems which social and philanthropic agencies are endeavouring to solve are health problems; while, on the other hand, the fact is also beginning to be apparent that most of the diseases which physicians and health authorities are treating and endeavouring to rectify have' their onign in social causes. Reflect for a moment on the work carried out by£ such agencies as committees on the prevention of blindness. These activities indicate how deeply the philanthropic world is delving in health problems, On the other hand, consider that most of this effort, begun in a purely charitable or philanthropic spirit, haa found, or is finding, its way to into our health departments, and that many of our leading hospital experts, recognising that they cannot ever properly diagnose and prescribe without unerstaninjrt he social conditions under which their patientß live, are establising bureaus of social service in the charge of nonmeical workers. Consider these things, I say, and you will agree with me' I think, that health work is fast developing beyond those limits wherein the medical practitioner has long been wont to hold uninterrupted sway. "Slowly, but sorely, a new concept is dawning in the minds of those who are working and thinking on those problems. Slowly but surely we are coming to realise that even the ethical character of a people has its basis in physiology; that this thing we call health is the foundation and Bource of civic righteousness, and that everything which tends to deprive any man or woman, youth or maid, boy or girl, of an essential to its physical growth or development is a wrong, not only physically, but intellectually, morally, and spiritually, against this and succeeding generations." He goes onto say: "Doctors and social workers alike are beginning to recognise that, while corrective treatment of existing sickness will remain a factor for a long time to come, eraphaiss must he placed more and more on the development of preventive measure?. It ha? become axiomatic to say that it is more, important to teach mother?, how to keep their babies well than to cure them after they are sick. "It takes skill and training to rect a deranged digestion. It takes pimple common sense, combined with a knowledge of what constitutes wholesome food and right living:, to prescribe a regime which will make a deranged digestion an impes'-ibility. "Teachers do not neod to ha scientists. The laws of health, like the lav?s of astronomy and mathematics, need only to be understood, pro;-legat-ed, and obeyed to seouia beneficial results. "And because Mm physician —except when he is dire.-uy connected with some organised social eiTort-—has no spare time for social teaching, the problem of dealing with the ignorance which he has painted out as a chief cause ot infant mortality, like the problem of improving the purely physical propreties of milk, has nassed into other hands.*' I