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38
of the unfortunate surviving victims of such an undesirable environment.
It is necessary to say these things because such unfortunate and
pernicious views prevail in consequence of the prevalent misunderstanding
of what has become scientific jargon It is not to be expected,
and probably it is undesirable, that every infant which may
have the misfortune to be ushered into the world should continue an
indefinite wretched mortality in despite of its inherent physical unfitness
to live its life under reasonably controlled conditions. But that is no
reason why normally constituted human babies, who constitute by far
the greater majority of those who are born, should be destroyed by
the inhuman conditions to which so vast a number are subjected.
It is wretched bad economy to bring a baby into the world
simply to give it the worst chance of surviving, for, should it die, as
most probably it will, the lowest cost to the parent will not be less, on
the most sordid estimate, than .£6 to £10, without counting the
trouble, the loss of time and dislocation of affairs that such an
experiment entails. Such unnatural, anti-social conduct might be
thought to stand self-condemned; but whether of malice aforethought,
from radically wrong ideas, from ignorance, or from an over-estimated
force of circumstance, the fact remains that a large proportion of our
population resorts, wittingly or unwittingly, to this barbarous practice.
The following tabulation of facts, ascertained in the course of
enquiries into the methods of rearing infants born in Willesden, tells
its own tale Of course, the great majority of mothers wish to do the
best they can for their infants, and it is pitiable that so many should
lack the simple knowledge necessary to achieve their most primitively
earnest desire.
As a result of nearly 3,000 enquiries made during the last two
years, I am able to give the following table, showing at each month of
age the manner in which infants are fed, whether surviving the
3rear of their birth or not. Unfortunately, after 3 months of age
the number of children about whom any knowledge has been acquired
is too limited to be taken as an index of what generally occurs.