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42
from Congenital Debility. Besides these. 40 still-births were buried
in the public Cemetery. Most of these were due to ante-natal causes,
and although it is impossible to obtain definite statistics, there is no
doubt but that chronic alcoholism in the parent exerts a most injurious
influence upon the offspring. Experimental methods have provided
us with proofs that alcohol given to a pregnant animal finds
its way to the foetal tissues. Of 120 inebriate women in a Liverpool
prison there were born 600 children, of whom 335 died under two
years or were deadborn. Further, there was also found to be a progressive
death-rate in the alcoholic family; the number of dead births
a iin deaths under two years increased as time went on, these fatalities
being more numerous among the later born than the first-born children
of these inebriates.
But alcoholism is not the only factor, and the necessity of issuing
some simple instructions to the expectant mother on the Hygiene
of Pregnancy has been informally discussed by the Health Committee.
The matter will be again brought before the Committee, so
tha> the means and agencies by which these instructions may be
issued can be discussed.
The vices of alcoholic excess, the use of certain drugs, and the
incidence of certain diseases must eventually be overcome by the
moralist, but possibly they bulk less largely than the great economic
condition of poverty which brings to the mother insufficient food,
insufficient rest, excessive work, and extra stimulation. In this district,
poverty is the chief cause of married women's labour. The
mothers go out to work, not from choice, but from necessity. It is
doubtful if work is injurious to the expectant mother, provided it be
not heavy or prolonged. The improved food and greater comfort
which mis work means, more than counteracts its disadvantages. In
view of the tendency to impose further legal restrictions upon married
female labour, the subject demands investigation, and before the
actual effect of the employment of women on the infant mortality can
be determined, we should have exact information not only as to the
sanitary surroundings of the selected areas, but also as to the kind
of employment.
In the laundry industry, the married women work, as a rule,
only four days a week, and we have yet to be convinced that this