OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3808, 8 March 1927, Page 68

OUR BABIES.

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Published under the aueplcee ef the Reyal New Zealand Society ter the Health ol Women and Children (Plunket Society). “It It wiser to put up a fence at the tep of a precipice than te maintain an ambulance at the bottom."

PLUNKET NURSES, ETC., DUNEDIN ' BRANCH. NURSES' SERVICES FREE. Nurses O’Shea (telephone 2348), Isbister (telephone 7566), Thomson, Scott, and Ewart (telephone 116), and Mathieson (telephone 3020). Society’s Roons: Jamieson’s Buildings, 6 Lower Stuart street (telephone 116), Office hours, daily from 2 to 4 p.m. (except Saturday and Sunday) and 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; 315 King Edward street, South Dunedin, 2 to 4 p.m. daily (except Saturday and Sunday), and 10 a.m to noon on Fridays; also 125 Highgate. Roslyn—Monday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m.; and at Kelsey-Yaralla Kindergarten Monday and Friday from 2 to 4 p.m.; and at 99 Musselburgh Rise, Wednesdays, 2 to 4 p.m. Out-stations: Baptist Church, Gordon road, Mosgiel, Tuesday afternoons from 3 to 4 o’clock; Municipal Buildings, Port Chalmers, Wednesday afternoons from 2 to 4 o’clock. Secretary, Miss G. Hoddinott, Jamie .son’s Buildings, Stuart street (telephone 116). Karitane-Harris Baby Hospital, Anderson’s Bay (telephone 1985). Matron, Miss Fitz-Gibbon. Demonstrations given on request every Wednesday afternoon from 2.30 by Plunket Nurses and Karitane Baby Nurses. Visiting hours: 2 to 4 p.m., Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. The following article was written by Sir Truby King in 1917, and published in this column. Following our last three articles on the care of the older baby and the needed knowledge and watchfulness to prevent the falling off which so commonly occurs, we think it appropriate to republish this article as a final commentary:— WHAT BECOMES OF THE BEAUTIFUL BABIES ? Many years ago Professor Patrick Geddes, the greqj biologist and humanitarian and joint author of our most noted book on sex, paused to ask himself this question, What becomes of a'U the beautiful babies? He had steeped himself in a profound study' of the origins and destinies of baby plants and baby animals, but what struck him as the most extraordinary and disappointing of the mysteries was the failure of the little human beings all around him to come up to the splendid possibilities with which they nearly all seemed to start. As he wandered along the streets or byways of cities, or even in the open country, he found himself confronted everywhere with the same thing—boys and girls, men and women, young and old, had fallen infinitely short of what they might have been. This was perhaps 20 years ago, but can the most optimistic of us say that matters are now appreciably better than they were then, or that we have paid one particle of heed to the clear-sighted and commonsense warnings of men such as Herbert Spencer and Geddes? Could anything be more amazingly significant or prophetic than the following passage from Herbert Spencer ? Physical Fitness. “To be a nation of ‘ good animals ’ is the first condition to national prosperity. Not only is it that the event of a war often turns on the strength and hardiness of soldiers, but it is that the contests of commerce are in part determined by the bodilv endurance of producers. Thus far we have found no reason to fear trials of strength with other races in either of these fields. But there are not wanting signs that our powers will presently be taxed to the uttermost.” And this was written half a century before George V became king! Going along our own streets to-day what is it that strikes us, if we trouble to observe and think whether we are doing justice to our race? As the crowd passes up and down the street before us, how many youths or adults of either sex could we pick out who would compare favourably, as samples of human perfection, with the beautiful babies who are so comparatively common. The vast majority are out of the running altogether. This failure to develop and grow up according to early promise causes no surprise or protest—we have got out of the way of expecting the average man or women to have the shapely feet, good limbs, broad hips, deep chest, square shoulders, good muscles, graceful, easy carriage, and aspect of radiant health and perfection which would be the prevalent type if man took as much trouble about the rearing and care of his own species as he does about the rearing of cattle and horses. Deformed and crippled feet, spindley calves, indifferent bodies, shallow chests, round shoulders, and slouching gait characterise the majority. The Elect Few. Even among the elect few, where can we find 'the individual who, however well he may look, would be fairly entitled to 75 per cent, of marks as an ideal specimen of manhood or womanhood, if the five following points were given the place they ought to have in standards of reasonable attainable bodily perfection:— 1. Well-developed jaws and sound, good teeth. 2. Fully-developed nose and throat, free from all restrictions or obstructions. 3. Fully-developed chest with ample breathing capacity. 4. Sound digestive organs and freedom from indigestion.

5. Shapely, well-developed calves and feet, free from distortions and deformities. Our shortcomings are obvious even to the casual observer, yet for the most part people regard the present state of matters as normal. There is no general protest against human unfitness. So long as people can manage to struggle through their daily work with the help of occasional patchi ngs-up by the doctor and the dentist, it does not occur to them that any higher standard than this is to be expected Yet it is quite safe ° that, Wl . t 1 vcry few exceptions indeed, the great majority of those who drag Mong with indifferent health and who - hardly ever feel perfectly wdl strong and fit, could have grown up excellent specimens of humanity had thev been properly and sensibly reared. For the most part men and women do not suffer from inevitable ill-health or unfitness but from the results of a few easily avoidable daily transgressions of the laws ot lite. Hie main cause of modern bodilv unhtness and inefficiency lies with our ''■onien, and is due not to indifference on then part, but to lack of necessary knowledge and consequent failure to‘put in practice the laws of healthy living as legarus themselves and their offspring.