OUR BABIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14660, 21 October 1909, Page 4

OUR BABIES.

Br Htckia. Published under tho auspices of the Society for tho Promotion of the Health of 'Women and Children. CORRESPONDENCE. Ve regret that owing to the Conference of tho Society in Wellington this week there has been no time, to reply to "Biter." The subject is one of such importance that it cannot he dismissed in a fen' lines. PARENTHOOD AND RACE CTLTURE. lne following extracts from "Parenthood and lhco Culture," by Dr C.-W. Salceby, which was published during,ihe ' present year, are of paramount importance:— Our prime assumption from beginning to eml is that "there is no wealth but life." . . We have been considering man from tlm point of view of what is transmitted to offspring by parents. But a word must bo said as'to tho other, factor which, witili heredity, determines the character of tile individual—and that [actor is the environment. I wish merely to note the most important aspctt of the environment or human beings, ami to observe that historians hitherto have wholly ignored it; yet its influence is incalculable. I refer to MOTHERHOOD. HEREDITY GIVES POTENTIALITIES ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPS THESE POTENTIALITIES AND TURNS THEM TO LiOOD OR EVIL ACCOUNT. One. might have the most perfect system of selection of the iinctl, ami highest iixlividuals for parenthood; but the babies whose potentialities—heredity gives no more—are ho splendid are always, will b« always, dependent i-pon moiherhcod. What was the -suite of motherhood during the decline and fall of die Roman Empire? Tills factor count* in history, and always will count so long as, liirce limes in every (Clitury, tho only weailh of nations is reduced to dust, and is .raised again from helpless infancy. As to Hon):-, wo know little, whatever may bt sui-'pcctcd; hut we know that here in the heart of the greatest' Empire in history—.Hid it is at the heart that Empires rot—thousands of mothers go out every tiny to tend dead machines, whilst their own flesh anil blond, with whom lies the Imperial destiny, arc landed anyhow or. not at all. it may yet be said by some enlightened historian of the future that tho living wealth of this people iu the twenlieth <;e.nUiry btnjan lo be eaten away by the cancer which v,e call " married women's labour," and that., as will be evident to that historian's readers, its damnation was 6UIO.

THE DESTINY OF THE RACE IX THE HANDS OF ITS MOTHERS. • To-day our historians and politicians think in terms of regiments and tariffs and Dreadnoughts; the time will come when they jrmst think in terms of babies and motherhood. We must think in such terms too if we wish Great Britain to be much longer great. .Meanwhile some of us seo Ihe perennial slaughter of babies in this land, ami the deterioration of many for every one killed outright, the waste of mothers' travail and tears, and we recall llnf'kiit's words:—

Nevertheless, it is open, I repeat, to .serious question, which ■ I leave to the leaders pondering, whether, among national manurJctiires, that of Souls ol ii good quality may not at last turn out a quite leadingl)' lucrative one? Nay, n some far-away and yet untlrcamt-of hour 1 c;in even imagine that England may east till thought* of possessive wealth back to tho barbaric nations among whom they lirst arose; and that while the sands of the Indus and adamant of Goleonda 111-iy yet stiffen tile housings of ths charger, and Hash from the turban of tile slave, she, as a Christian mother, may at last attain to the virtues and t.lic treasures of a Heathen one, and be able to lead forth her fjons, saying: " These are Mi' Jewels."

Had all i!on;an mothers been Corcnelias, would Koine have fallen? Consider the iin'taUon mothers—no longer mammalia— to be found in certain elasscs to-day— mot hers who should be ashamed to look anv tabby-cut in the ?,ce: consider the ignorunt jmiil «tu\vn-tvot.!il:m mothers amongst our 'lower clcsses, and asic whether these things are not making histurv. 1

(liblion 'icc.s 'not enlighten ui much on such vital mat lew. but my addition lias be-'n caii-.d to tin! following passage, not, irrelevant here. It is from the "Attic Nigitls" of Aldus Gelliui, llook .vi, chap, i, ivrilteu about. ,\.n. 350. A It Oil AX ON UiiTIIKIUJOOD. " Oiico when I was with the philosopher l'avoriuus word, was brought to liitu tiiat the wife ot o:io o; his di.-ciplts had just given birilt (o a fun. "Lst us go," ,;;it| he, "to inquire after tile mother awl to congratulate the father." Tha hitter was a noble, of Senatorial rank.

All ol us who were [>iOSlmil accoinpajii'-j-tl iiini to tho house, and went in with him. ■ Meeting I hi; fafcho-t in tin* h;iil lie unbraced ami congratulated him, and, =ittin.; down, inquired how his wife had iwino tiirotiifii 111'.' ordeal. And when lie ho;,ri! tint tl>n voii!];; moilim-, overcoms; with Fatigue, was now In? Ui'gan to more lirely.

"Of cour.-e." said lie, ''frii? will siiold-s tin" l '■1 < 1 hoi'.-I'll.'' And wh"n tiioiriV jnoliicr ,-jill iiini her dan;,'liter nnis.t l.y ."pared, «r.d iiuifcs obtained in order I'm; the limivv si vain oi iiuwiiij; the child should not !r ;;<!<!<.•■ t lo what, she ii;:d ;t!r"::dy l ihrouyli, " I hi'!; of you, di'.rr liidy.' ?ai<l hp, "to allow her io hv it. whole mother to her (hi!:!. Is it not iigninsl. Nature, and licius' only half a mot her, lo ;;ivf birth to a cliiM, :tn,l th.i'n at once to mmhl him away— !o have, jjourished with Iky own blood r.r.d in her own body a someti'imr thai slw hail lwcr seen, and thou '.o i.'fu;-!> it her own milk now thai -he ijpes it living-. a htimyi bointr, a moth-"? 5 (lr arc you otis <i[ the ' 1 who think ihat XhMuv gave J a woman breasts, not (hat she might, fi'cd h'M' chiidvn. hut a; prelly lit tin hillocks lo trivo hotbint a pli'iisiiij eonlcur! Many indeed oi' our pro-!>nt-day laditv.-whom vol: ore far from iT.S'-mliliris;—do try to drv up ami impress thai sacred fonnt. of the'body. 1-It<« liourishcr of tin; human race, even at the ri.il; they run from turning bo!; and corwptinjt i heir milk, lost'it should Sate olli j fic:u the clmrm of their beauty. In doim; this they act with the sam« folly as those . •vhi>, by tii# ti-v of drugs ami so forth, i endeavour to destroy the very embryo in their bodies lest a inrrow should mar the miino'.hncsi of their skin and they .should spoil tho:t- llgures in becoming mothers, if the destruction of a human be: tig in ii> first inception, whilst, it is formed. I whilst it is yet corning lo life, and is still ' in the hands of its artificer, Nature, he deserving oi public detestation and horror, i- it not nearly as bad to deprive the child of his proper and congenial nutriment to i wiiirh he is accustomed now that lie i s ■ perfected, is born into the world, is a child? ' ■

i "But it makes no <li(fcronce— for as they I say-so long as the child is nourished ami , lives, with whoso milk it is done. "\Vliy does lit- uliu says this, since lie Iso dull in understanding Niltuie, think ;l iiiio of no ( Uiise(|iii;iiot> in whose wo.inb and liom wlkh-o blood the child is formed and Fa-liiimcd*' For is there not n-j w in the breasts Iho sa.ina bloid—ivhitomd, it 'is true, by agration and heat—nliivli was before in Hi.' womb': And is uol the wi«!o'>> of Xaliirp lo ba seen in this, that as toon i as lh» blood has done its work of forming j the body down below, and ihe time <■[ birth has tome, it betakes itself to the ■ upper parts of the. body, and is ready lo 1 cherish tliQ spark of life and light' by furnishing to the new-born babe his known and accustomed food? And so it is not an i idle belief thai, just as the strength and ! character' of the seed have their influent? | in determining tiro'likeness of the hody'aml j uiiiul, so do the mttuie and pi opfrtics of j the milk do their jsart. in effecting the I same results. And tills has Hrcn lioiicf"! j not. in man alone. but in cittle ih well. I'or if kids are bi ought up on the milk .1! ewes, or lambs m" that of goats, it is agteod tint the latter have stiller wool, tint former softer hair. In the case of timber and fruit trees, too, the (nudities of tlio water and soil from which they dratv their nourishment have more inflii- ! eni-i in stunting or augmenting their I growth than those of the eecd which is j sown, ami often you may soe a vigorous I and healthy tree when transplanted into | another place perish owing to the poverty i of the foil.

j "Is it, then, a reasonable thing to cor- ; ru|»r. the fine qualities of the new-born man. | well endowed as to both hotly and mir.d so far as parentage is concerned, with the I unsuitable nourishment oi degenerate and i foreign milk? | " • • And besides these considersI tioe.s, who can afford to ignore or Itelitlle j the fact that those wlio desert tlnir off 1 spring and ssn-d them away from them- ' selves, and make them over to other's to nurse, cut, or at least loosen and weaken. ; that chain and connect ion of mind and affcction by which Nature attaches children j lo their parents! • Far when the ehihl, sent elsewhere, is away from sight the vigour

of the maternal solicitude little by little dies away, and the call of .motherly instinct grows silent, and forgetfulness of a child sent awoy to nurse is not much less complete than Hint of one lost by death.

"A child's thoughts awl 'the love ha is ever ready to givo are occupied, moreover, wit'i her olono from .whom ho derives hie food, and soon lie lias neither feeling nor alt'ection for the mother wno bcre hini. The foundations of the filial feelings with which \yo lire born being thus sapped and undsrmined. whatever affection children tluu brought, up may seem to liavo for father and mother for t.ho most part is not natural love, but the result of social convention.''