HEARTH AND HOME.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10536, 10 August 1912, Page 4

HEARTH AND HOME.

OURBABIES.

(By HYGEIA.)

Published under the auspices ol the Society for the Health of Women and Children. " It is wiser to put up a fenoe at the lop of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance a*-the bottom." (ADDRESSES OF PLTTNKET NTTRSKS AND SECRETARIES. JDunedin.—Plunket Nurses Lainj and Cor* xanee. rel«.' 1136 and 2057. unices ot tfcs. Society, Health Department Rooms, Liv*rJJiool Street. Dunedin. Office hours, Monday, Wednesday and FricUy, from 3 to 4 p.m. Branch office at Cftrgill ko»o ' South Dunedin. Office houre Monday, S"uesd*y, and Wednesday, from 8 to 5 >• p.m. Eon. •ecretary, Mrs Edmond, M«l- ---,, 7sh Btreet Tel. 53. • ■■„.,• t^Wsstcimreh.—Plunket Nurse 3 Hickspn and ' retard. Offic of tho Society, 847, Chan*Sry iane. Tul. 847. Office hours, 9 to SI *.m. and 3 to 3 p.m. daily (except . Saturdays and Sundays). Hon. secretary, pro tem, Mrs C. Raid, Knowlea Street, 'r' St Albini. Tel. 1071. . , ISftllnißton.—Hon. Monetary, Mrs .M Vicer, 27, 1 Brougham Street, City. Tel.. 2613. , Uteokland.—Plunket Nurses Chappell and .' ■ .' Brlen, Park Street. Tel. 851. Offlco of ■ ■ -too Society, S, Chancery Street. Tel. 829, ' • Sfl&e hours, Tuesdays nod Fridays, 2.80 \6 4 p.m. Hon. secretary, Mt« W. H.. • Parkee, Marinoto, Symonda Street. TeL ■ MO. Wapier.—Plunket Sum Donald, Masonic - Hotel. Tel. 485. Hon. secretary, Mrs H. j E. Oldham, Telegrams, "Oldham," Na'.pier. Tel. 585. »l3Ftw Plymouth.—Plunket Nurse Morgan, Imperial HoteL -Tel. 138. Offloe, Terra Hall, Wednesdays and Fridays, 3 to 4 p.m. - Hon. seorstary, Mia B. J. Matthews, Fita- , • roy. Tel., 104. , „ «*, • )JBmaru.—Plunket Nurse Campbell. Office of • the Society, Arc*da Chambers. Tel. 814. - Office hours, 8.80 to 4.80 and 6.80 to 7.30* ' Hon. secretary, Mr Ernest Howden. flnvercargill.—Plunket Nurse O'Shea, Allen's 1 Hall, Kelvin Street. Hon. secretary, Mrs Handyside, G-ala Street. . HAjhburtou.—Plunket Nurse Hickaon. Offioe <• ol Society, Bullock's Arcade. Nurse in attend unco every Saturday from 11 ».m. to e p.m. Hoc secretary, pro tern, Misa Standish, ' . , ; Booi«ty'B Baby Hospital, Kantan© Harris Hospital, Andewon'B Bay, Dunedin. Tol. 1985. Demonstrations on points of inrarest to mothers are given every Wednesday afternoon from 3.30 to 8.80. All . mothers are invited. I lieesares may be left at any time at the ,'Plunkat Nurses' offices or private addieaseaw All other information available from th» hon. secretary of each branch. I PLUNKET NURSES' SEBVIOES FREE.

OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM. The* following lecture was delivered l>y'Dr Truby King, General President of the Society for the Health of Women and Children, on certain medical aspects of - education. The statement made by Dr King was'primarily for the benefit of the Education CommisWn, but the Commission invited teachjers and others interested to attend. As tbe lecture'-has' a special bearing 'on the health of women and children, !l am sure that parents will ponder •over it.

\ RUNNING COUNTER TO LAW. { Tho speaker said that the.first thing •he wished to draw attention to was Ithe grave effects which.neglect of rational hygiene—the laws and needs of 'healthy habits and healthy living, over[stu'dy, competitive examinations and so-called competitions—were having on ■the rising generation, especially on 'girls. He gave an address on the subject In Wellington some _ eighteen anonths ago at a large meeting of the , Medical Association. What he then advanced met with the strongest endorseWent, and he was pressed by his medical confreres to bring the matter before the annual meeting of the British Medical Association, which was to be held in Auckland some months later, aa-;,it was felt that the outlook and the existing conditions of education fpr - girls needed to be radically changed in certain-directions. /At the annual general meeting in 'Auokland, held in March, sixteen months ago, he gave an address on Factors Bearing on Motherhood .under the Conditions of Modern Civilisation as Affecting the Race." Dr [Savage, the president, and a number of other doctors spoke in the same direction, saying . how frequently they were called on in practice to deal with jcases of nervous breakdown and functional irregularities of organs associated with more or less developmental arIrest, brought _on by_ lack of rational hygiene and injudicious and unnecessary educational stress—that is to say, 'arrest of proper nutrition, growth involving not r,nly the .whole organism, more or less, but failing especially on those parts of the growing girl which it is the scheme of , creation to develop and expand ?t the very period of life when the ?tress of : our educational system is making iiself most felt. In such cases, Dr Savage Baid, he was in the habit of advising that the pupil should be taken avay from school for a whole year; indeed, ha said h* was inclined to think that were It feasible it would be a good v thing for all girls if they could be relieved from the stress of ordinary education as now conducted, at this ori- . tical expanding and rapidly-growing Seriod of life. At the close of a .long iscussion the following resolution was ■passed unanimously:

~" '"That the Hon Dr Collins, Dr Gibbs jind Dr King be appointed a committo wait on the Minister of Education and represent the opinion of , ihis conference that it is in the higheat interests of the whole community );hat the State should inculcate and - bring about as far as feasible an ideal -ni education for girls which, to quote the words of Professor Stanley Hall, Bhall ' invert the present maxim that girls should be primarily trained to independence and self-support, and lhat matrimony and motherhood if it come will take care of itself-' This

'conference feels bound to deprecate any lystein of education which—under the stress of excessive mental effort, excessive competition, excessive training aftflf 80-oalled accomplishments, etc.— pays insufficient attention to ensuring normal, orderly, well-balanced development and complete fitness for maternity and the practical care of a homo. |The conference is satisfied that, broadly speaking, even where marriage does inot take place, the education which [gives a girl the best all-round equipment In body, mind, morals and incliination for home life and potential mo.therhood, also gives her the soundest and surest foundation for future health ]»nd happiness ; and for a sustained jtower of earning an independent liviinfl if such should prove to be her lot." ) The views of the medical profession as indicated were duly laid before tfce (Minister Public Health. The only thing bearing further on this matter that has transpired since was a meeting which took place early this week, in which Dr King conferred with the rommitteo of the Medical Association In Wellington, when there was a unanimotlß confirmation of the conclusions arrived at previously, and certain further practical suggestions were made tdiich the speaker was asked to reprelent before the Commission.

i EDUCATION AS IT APPEALS TO | t THE PHYSICIAN. The •'/lecturer explained that it was his intention to deal not so much with the details of ordinary education as ,with its broader and more essential aspects, bearing on the development and future health and fitness of the 'individual, physical, mental and moral* \B& was not specially concerned with immediate school results. In other ircrds, he wished to deal with education as it appealed to the physician, ivntl ho made no apology for commenclte« with a few simple experiments sult>t4e for demonstrating to a child and proving tha* we live at the bottom of an ocean which is just as material and •UDstantial as the ocean in which fish live, only that the aerial fluid happens lo be thinner. Ninety per cent of people did not believe that air wa3 anj-

THE DOMESTIC CIRCLE,

thing—or, at any rate, anything of importance. He could come to no other conclusion from the fact that they abhorred open windows, especially open bedroom windows. Education took 10 account of air as a food; indeed, he might almost say that the higher our education the less seemed to be the recognition of the need for a constant and abundant supply of pure air—the first ftf ail essentials for health. Education talked glibly about carbonic acid, gas and fifteen pounds pressure on the square inch, but it did not bring home to the child that it could live for forty days without food, but only four minutes without air. A child could be intensely interested in such matters if they were properly presented. The books generally used in our schools for teaching physiology were utterly unfit for the purpose—infinitely dry and filled with a mass of uninteresting and unimportant details.

From Eliponda the character of the land altered ver# much. We had left