CHILD WELFARE WORK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18567, 27 November 1923, Page 8

CHILD WELFARE WORK.

PROGRESS OF CAMPAIGN. MUCH MORE TO BE DONE. [by TELEGRAPH.—OWN correspondent.] WELLINGTON. Monday. Some interesting impressions of the work of the very successful Medical Conference, recently held in Melbourne, were given by Dr. Truby King, director of Child Welfare in-Now Zealand, who returned by the Maunganui to-day. He stated that the child welfare section was well represented in the addresses. Steady progress was being made, he said, both throughout the Commonwealth and in the Dominion, and it was generally recognised that much more attention ought to be paid to the subject, and especially to the facilities for teachnig medical students and to giving the subject its proper status as an essential part of the training for iho medical profession. It was also recognised that while considerable advance had been made during the last few ■ years, there ought to be more systematic and more definite training for nurses in general. He referred particularly to training in midwifery, and in the care of the mother and child. The training should be given quite apart from the question whether the nurse was to specialise in that particular direction. , The most interesting paper upon recent investigations in connection with diseases of children, said Dr. King,, was read by Dr. Elsie Dalziell, of Sydney. She gave the results of investigations made by nerself and others at the Lister Institute, and at Vienna University, into the fundamental causes of ricketts, which had seriously involved perhaps 75 per cent, of the children born in the later stages of the war and during the two following years, in cities such as Vienna and Moscow. The extreme gravity of th 3 cutting, off of the ultra-violet rays of the spectrum by smoked window glass, and of children living indoors instead of out of doors in crowded cities containing high buildings, was epeeiially emphasised. Stress also was laid on the importance of a due proportion of animal fats in food. These conclusions, said Dr. King were in accord with investigations made in America during the last two years, and were considered highly significant.