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53
has often been achieved at the expense of the diet and'
health of the mother, and that there is a definite falling
off in the health of the latter. If this be so, then this
retrogression is likely before long to affect the children too.
Professor Davidson and his co-workers in Aberdeen, have
shown that approximately 50 per cent, of the working-class
women whom they examined were suffering from anaemia,
which was primarily nutritional in origin, and could be
cured by giving iron, and that with the industrial depression
the dietary of the poorer classes of the community has
become definitely worse. Bearing in mind how the welfare
of the whole family is usually dependent on the mother,
it seems important that the maternity and child welfare
service should concentrate on this problem in the interests
of both mother and child. The Aberdeen investigators
suggest that " a glass of milk . . . and a pennyworth
of iron and ammonium citrate daily without ai\y additional
change in the diet of pregnant women of the poorest classes
would produce remarkably beneficial results to mother and
infant." But this leaves out of count the ill-fed mother of
a growing family. If the health of the mothers is not
improved, it seems certain that the proportion of physically,
subnormal and nervous children in the population is bound
to increase.

LIGHT CLINIC.
I append the report of Dr. K. M. Horton, who
conducts the Light Clinic:—
Artificial Sunlight Clinic.
This year's work has been encouraging; 469 new cases
were referred for treatment, as against 272 in last year.
At all three sessions both lamps have been used to capacity