Children’s Lives.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 24, 10 June 1908, Page 65

Children’s Lives.

THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL, DRV 3 AND PATENT FOODS. _Tlie important question of the frightful infantile mortality which exists among the more so-called civilised nations is attracting more attention every day. Here in New Zealand Lady Plunket is doing a noble work, and at Home people are beginning to wake up to the fact that the first step in the direction of stopping the degeneration of the race is to see that the children have a fair start in life, ano do not 6nter on the battle handicapped by weak and feeble bodies bequeathed them through ignorance, or what is worse, wilful neglect, An important conference on infant mortality was held recently at Caxton Hall, London. and several highly instructive papers were read. EFFECT OF PARENTAL HABITS. Dr. E. W. Hope, D.Sc., Medical Officer of Health for the city of Liverpool, read a paper on “Infant Mortality as Affected by the Habits of the Parents.” He said every extended inquiry into the intricate subject brought, to light the fact that parents living approximately the same social and sanitary conditions had very varying success in rearing their infants. This seemed to indicate that the personal factor deserved careful study. Broadly speaking, the families of the well-to-do showed a relatively small infant mortality, and it was therefore among the less well-to-do sections of the community that inquiry was most important. One of the most important factors undoubtedly was the amount of intelligence which the mother possessed an intelligence which, if it was not innate, was difficult to acquire, and for which even education was a poor substitute. As an illustration of an instinctively intelligent woman, Dr. Hope quoted the ease of a poor woman at Liverpool, who lias given birth to seven living children, all of them being quite healthy, the youngest two being twins of four months old. The father is a dock labourer, and his wages are stated not to exceed on the average 12s. per week. The house is very clean and comfortable, and the children well oared for, those 6f the school age attending school regularly. The mother, when she is able, adds to the income by taking in washing, and, as a matter of fact, was working practically

up to the day before the birth of the twins. Neither of the parents drink, and the condition of the home and the children present a striking example of what can be done even with a very little money when none of it is wasted in drink. Another illustrative case is that where nine children have been born, all now living, the youngest eight weeks old; all have been breast-fed. Husband some years ago lost his business through illhealth, from which he recovered. Of late years he has worked at the docks, his wife occasionally charing. All children clean. Home comfortable. A BAD EXAMPLE. Placed in contrast with these eases is that of Mrs. B , whose first infant died at the age of four months. The second born is now living, and is 11 years of age. The third, fourth and fifth died under eight months of age. The sixth is living. The seventh, eighth, and ninth died at a few months of age. The tenth, aged three months, is living, but is reported to be wasting and is much neglected. The husband can earn up to 40s. per week, but both parents are intemperate. The midwife who attended at the last confinement states that the mother was lying intoxicated on the floor when she arrived, the. baby having already been born. A long series of cases of this description are recorded, in which obvious drunkenness in an extreme, degree is the pre-eminent feature associated with the loss of the infant, the money wasted, the parents drink-sodden, and every feature of intelligent attention to the infant wanting. With these there comes the long string of examples in which the alternations between the gaol anil the workhouse are factors, making it abundantly plain that the children of the family have had no proper maternal solicitude bestowed upon them, and have perished in consequence. NEGLECTED CHILDREN.

Dr Stanley B. Atkinson, Mile-end, read a paper on ‘’The Care of Children Neglected by Drunken Parents.” He said an infant should no longer be regarded as a mere potential citizen. A_>hild is a full subject of the King, and if slain by violent assault or injured by continued passive neglect, it should be seen that the toll for the exit or the maiming of a subject’s life is not suffered to remain unpaid. The penalty should be imposed in order to serve as a warning to future would-be evildoers. The forensic position once enunciated by Sir James Mackintosh must, however, be recollected: “This execution will not deter drunkards from murder; it only deters men who are sober from drunkenness.” The result of the drunken neglect by one or by both parents may be manifest either in the death or in a slow gradation of decay of the health of the in* fant; it becomes the prey of chronic, if not acutely fatal, diseases. The fact may be noted that at birth fine children are incidental to simple poverty; puny infants, whom frequently the drunken mother cannot properly nurse, are the result of alcoholic intemperance. Oliver Wendell Homes has written, “The time to commence the education of a child is twenty years before it is born, by educating its mother. The mother must be convinced that, if she persists in her harmful ways, she will ruin the prospects of her offspring’s life right

“from the womb to the tomb,” and will herself be courting needless labour and anxiety in caring for a sickly and illfavoured child. She must regard herself as “baby-food,” and guard her own health accordingly. Among possible methods of infant protection are those which are taken in order to prevent, if practicable, the need of legal action. A friendly worker or a health visitor might call at the neglected home from time to time in order to warn, to watch, and to encourage, with a lively hope of personal amendment, self-remedy in the par. ent. Homes from which the older children come in a very dirty unkempt, and neglected state, frequently contain neglected younger children who are being trained in similar objectionable ways. .Failing other methods, the Children’s Act of 1904 must l>e enforced on liehalf of an infant under improper care.

INFANTS IN PUBLIC-HOUSES. Eighty per cent, of the infants of the poor are insured, largely with a view to a ‘decent bun’al.” This might mean that as an arriere pensee death is an expectation, and the insurance might be called preferably -death and burial’ rather than “life.” Children should be prohibited from entering “pubs or clubs” wherein intoxicating liquors are being sold and drunk. In many degraded localities, away from the main roads, are clustered what are known as "womens houses,” sometimes locally as cowsheds. The presence of tiny babies in these licensed premises without doubt is a palpable sign of maternal neglect. Such an infant starts life as a moderate drinker if it is suckled by its mother, and there are authentic records of babies having developed “gin-drinker’s liver." In the discussion which followed these two papers, speaker after speaker bora testimony to the. evil effects of drunken habits on infant life and on the subsequent lives of children who survive tin infant stage of existence. Canon Horsley (Walworth), gave a table compiled during his experience as a prison chaplain, which crystallised tin arguments and incidents narrated by other speakers. In each ease one parent or the other, sometimes both, was in prison for drunkenness. SEVENTEEN CHILDREN. .

14 - Dr Eric Pritchard contributed a paper on the regulation and control of the manufacture of foods and drugs for infants, in which he stated that the use of so-called patent foods, soothing syrups, and teething powders was responsible for a proportion of the infantiie death-rate. He pointed out that many of these substances were almost valueless as food, dr were positively injurious to the infant. A mere extension of the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act, so as to include infants .as well as cattle and poultry, would undoubtedly lead to the conservation of infant life. In view of the fact that Australia, the United States, and nearly all European countries had pased pure food acts which control the sale and faufaeture of infants’ food, he thought this country, having passed legislation to protect cattle and agriculture, should extend similar protection to its infants. (Hear, hear.) Bailie Anderson said he had had analysed certain well-known patent foods for young infants, and it was found that a large proportion of *.ieu contained from 50 to 75 per cent, of starch, and less than 1 per cent, of fat. If it were not for the milk with which these so-called foods were cooked, the children fed on them would die of starvation. The Government had given legislative protection to the wild birds of the air, the trout in the streams, the cattle in the fields, even the soil of the fields itself. (Hear, hear.) Surely it was not too much to ask that the human infant should have at least equal protection, and that the law would see that so-called infants’ foods were not either a poison or a swindle, as most of them are at present. (Cheers.) THE RESOLUTIONS. The following series of resolutions were then unanimously adopted by ths conference: — 1. That this conference expresses its appreciation of Parliament having passed the Notification of Births Act (11)07), and urges upon all local authorities the importance of adopting the Act and appointing qualified women to carry out its provisions. 2. That in order to combat the prevalent ignorance resulting in wastage of infant life and injury to the health of many of the survivors, the conference urges upon the Board of Education and upon educational authorities generally the importance of securing to all girls in every grade of school a satisfactory training in domestic and personal hygiene and in the duties of womanhood. 3. That the conference, being convinced

of the injury done to infant life and health through infants being taken into public-houses, urges upon I’arhanient the necessity of providing such legislation as will prevent this. 4. That the Children’s Bill be amen ded so as to empower local authorities to charge upon the rates the cost ot carrying out the existing statutory pro visions for the prevention of cruelty to children. 5. That this conference is of opinion that boards of guardians ought to make greater use of their existing powers to adopt the children of incorrigible parents. That all preparations ottered or sold as foods or drugs for infants should be certified by a Government analyst as non-injurious, and that each packet shall bear an analysis of its contents, and that the provisions, similar to the Fertilisers and Food Stuffs Act, should be applied to drugs and foods sold, or purporting to be, for the use of infants. Other resolutions were adopted, asking for the extension of the Midwives Act (1902) to Scotland and Ireland; and urging an amendment- of the law with regard to the conditions under which milk is produced and sold. An amendment suggesting that the conference was of opinion that low wages was the chief cause of infant mortality, and that laws should be enacted which would ensure adequate means of maintenance for every infant born, was ruled out of order by the chairman, with the approval of the conference.

No. of No. alive children horn. ar tune o f pa reals 7 I 1 19 7 1 0 (In this case the mother thanked God they wc ■re all dead.) 14 4 G (X i 7 0 t