SCIENCE AND THE CHILD.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12814, 13 July 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

SCIENCE AND THE CHILD.

A WOMEN'S MEETING. STRAIGHT TALK BY DR. TRUBY KING. "Everyone knows what a bugbear the term 'science' is to women," said Dr Truby ' King to a large audience of women m the V.M.C.A. hall, Christcluivh. He went on to say that the' term was very riiuch associated with the j idea of fads or dry-as-dust demonstra- ! tions. That was true to some extent, but it did not contain the whole truth. The doctor quoted with approval the words of Professor Huxley's daughter that science is here not to complicate things, but to simplify them, and to substitute that which we know for that which we guess. He pointed to the achievements of science, and the effect they had had on economic and social conditions. Where would this Dominion have been but for science? Certainly it would not have been so much m debt, but without science there would not have been any frozen mutton trade, no scientific dairying or farming, and none of the present amenities of modern civilisation. With this justification Dr King prefaced a straight >talk tp his audience on the subject of "The outlook and influence .of woman on the future of the race;" It dealt largely with the questions of motherhood and infant life, and with his scientific conclusions the lecturer irresistibly hammered his facts home. His first diagram related to plant life, and was designed to show that while certain .manures benefited hemp, it would not necessarily benefit another clover. The application of this was that one of the greatest curses to child life had resulted from the^ assumption that two creatures so entirely different as a child and a calf could be suitably nourished by the same milk. A second diagram showed the results obtained by feeding calves with the "simple dietary that God Almighty and Nature meant for them." He enlarged on the necessity for proper and scientific feeding of .nfants, and unsparingly condemned the slipshod methods of some- mothers.. - A •third diagram showed the proper constituents of a- baby's milk dairy ,and the doctor followed /this up with the caustic comment that women did iot love measurements — they wanted ■to measure by teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups— any thing ■'• rather .than precision. He devoted quite a time to the iniquity of feeding cow's milk to infants, and pointed out, that it was the cause of summer diarrhoea, one of the most prolific causes of > infant mortality. He coun-selled.-.the' avoidance of certain practices which hiust have a detrimental effect on the health of infants; '"But all this means troubl-3 '■ .Our mothers and grandmothers did riot do this, and why should we ?" That was the cry he had to meet, and ne a3kod, "V. hat has resulted from your mutnors and grandmothers ?" They learn/.d th it not fifty per cent of gpbd, healtiv/, modern women could nurse their babies for six months. Was not that something, that required looking into? He gave a moving account- of a mother who had had six children, five of whom had been sickly children. "She was an ignorant woman — that is to say, her knowledge was about: the average knowledge!" After this shot, the doctor described the treatmeni which was given the sixth child. It was treated scientifically, and the gain to the mother, as well as the fhild> was incalculable. There were no wakeful nights, no feeding at night. "Why should the babe be awake at a time when Nature ordained it should be slumbering? Why should its parents suggest to it the idea of insomnia?. Why should a babe be fed day and night? Be sure that your fowls will come home ;to roost!" Dr. King went on to declare his unalterable conviction that no substitute food could equal mother's milk. Where breast feeding was not possible a child could be nourished properly .on artificial food ; if it was made to correspond with mother's mijk. He threw a gibe at barley water. "If you feed that alone to a baby," he -«id, "it would take a bucketful a'day !" Dr King got quite enthusiastic on the subject of milk. "Why !" he exclaimed, milk is v art absolute lucky bag. Plunge your hand m, and you bring out a- solid lump of/ butter. Dip it m again, and you bring out a solid lump of cheese. Then there is tlie whey, and you- still have the sugar left. You talk about milk being a, fluid. It is a very much more solid material than turnips or apples. It is; three tiriies as solid as the! turnip and twice as solid as the apple." Launched on the subject of food values, lie gave the ladies some sound- advice to observe when they went shopping. The work done m Dunedin m connection with infant life protection was referred to, and Dr King remarked that the figures justified the prediction he made seven years ago, that if' A the. women of the Dominion were instructed m and understood the laws of the feeding of children, the death rate .among children would be reduced one half. A saving m infant life would mean a saving m adults, and it meant that they would all live their lives m a happier and more efficient way 'than at present, * Dr King then had a tilt at the"higher education , of women." He said that at the present time we were suffering from a kind of aspiration among women which seemed to him to be entirely on wrong lines. That was the general aspiration for what was called, and wrongly called, the higher education of women. '"I am not an opponent^ of higher education," he said, "but I contend that a forrri of education which proves to be damaging to the nervous system and general physique of men, and is very largely useless, to tlienv is worse for women." He contended that women's education should be adapted to the needs of women, and that they should be instructed m the things which would equip themifor filling the most important duties of life. That this present system did not do tliis he could prove up to the hilt. "I have had too many girls- coming to Seacliff as the result of the overstress of this education. -A girl of fourteen, the brightest member of the family, was brought there on acount of her intemperate study irig. She got up at halfpast four to study ; she studied on her way to school ; all the gladness of life was taken out, for the purpose of studying at f ourjteen for a Civil Service exaniination! Such things, to my; mind, are infinitely, wrong !" The doctor added that last year a lady teacher m a North Island High School told him that if he wanted to get an absolute detestation of English literature he should study for a Tinlino scholarship. These scholarships were given to encourage .a study of English literature. He urged- that an education system which took more account of their physical being, arid did not depend on such arduous study and stiff examinations, would be better for teachers and taught alike. If it dealt more with the domestic virtues it could be put to more practical use m. the life of the individual. The doctor, m conclusion, commended the work of the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children, and pointed to the field of work to be opened up for women' m, connection ulth the nursing profession and Phi riket nurses.