MENACE OF THE EMPTY CRADLE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 867, 20 November 1916, Page 4

MENACE OF THE EMPTY CRADLE.

"The mcua.ee lies not in battle casualties, but in empty cradles," said Sir George Bcatson, at Edinburgh, recently. The German paraphrase of the same^ sentiment (coined by the well-known preacher-politician, Friedrich Naumann) is "The future of the Fatherland will be decided in the nursery." That aphorism has provided the incentive for a remarkable "Mother and Infant" exhibition, opened in Berlin last month. All organisations interested in the checking of infantile mortality have joined forces to provide a comprehensive and graphic, object-lesson in how to rear healthy babies. Speeches at the opening all emphasised the paramount importance of the question in view of Germany's gigantic war losses. Statistics show that, despite the alleged hardships of existence in Germany in War time, infant mortality has been substantially decreased. It reached in 1915 the lowest average ever recorded —namely, 12.8 per cent. During the Franco-Prussian War it was 40 per cent. Persons recently in Germany tell me that "Babies First! "is now the inviolable food rule. Milk rations are adjusted specially for their benefit. Roughly, they are on the basis of a quart a day for every baby under a year old, if not nursed by the mother. If nursed by the mother, the mother gets the allowance. Then, up to a certain age, the babies get a pint and a-half per day, and, in the case of children from about six io 12 years, the ration is a pint a day. There is also a special allowance for women about to become mothers, and the age limit is extended in case of illness. Tn Berlin a wonderful organisation of 6000 -volunteer district nurses devotes its entire time to promoting the welfare of infants of poor mothers.