SMALLEST BABY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17609, 27 October 1931, Page 7

SMALLEST BABY

BRISBANE, Oct. 13. This State is keen on records. Lately the matron of the King Edward Hospital at Perth, claimed that the smallest infant recorded was born there, weighing lib 13o'z. Mrs. P. C. Bryce, of Winton, claims —and she has four lady witnesses—that her surviving twin child, prematurely born in January, 1914, weighed lib Boz. The coolest place at the Bryce home ran to 114 deg at the time, and the mother had neither skilled nurse nor doctor. The baby was massaged with olive oil every day for three months, and fed every two hours with loz albulactin and sugar and milk with warm water. At three months she weighed 31b, and at five months SJlb. On to seven months old she was given goats’ milk and barley water, and then she weighed lGlb. At eight months the weight was 19Jib, nine months 21 Jib, and then teething began. At 10 months 221 b, 11 months 231 b, with height 29in. and chest measurement lOJin. At 12 months the baby was 231 b, and at 15 months 251 b. Mrs. Bryce kept a diary. Now the girl is 17 years of age, is sft. 9Jin. in height and weighs Hist. 81b. The figures may have domestic, as well as anthropological, interest. Students of biology are well aware that in the lower animals it is frequent to find a small member of a litter, and that it develops to normal size.