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17
station and thoroughly cleaned. The rooms and bedding were
cleansed and disinfected. The elder girl developed a boil, which was
dressed daily for a fortnight. The home conditions were much
improved, but at this time the family moved elsewhere.
To sum up, the work already accomplished by the Health
Visitors completely justifies the appointments made. They have
alleviated much suffering amongst infants, they have prevented
much distress by bringing the cases to the notice of the appropriate
agencies, and they have given much timely and helpful
instruction in the care of infants, their proper clothing and
common-sense methods of feeding.
Many of the mothers were found to be lamentably ignorant as
to the care of their children. Grandmothers having the care of
infants, and mothers who had already had several were the most
intractable of all.
One grandmother was especially emphatic, and insisted on the
depth of her expert knowledge and the width of her experience—
she repeatedly urged her thorough grasp of the management of
infants; the good lady had had eleven children, of whom nine had
died ; she now supervised the upbringing of two grandchildren—
these also died.
It is very difficult to know what to do with people of this type.
It is hoped that when housecraft becomes a settled subject in all
elementary schools that their number will eventually vanish.
Meantime it is the work of the health visitors of carry the torch
of knowledge into the poorer homes, to help those who are anxious
to learn, to save the lives of the infants, and to make those
mothers who are dirty clean their homes, wash themselves and
wash their children, for there would even now appear to be
amongst some of the very poor a disinclination to wash a wasting
and sickening child.
An encouraging feature of the work has been the increasing
number of mothers who have asked for visits to be paid by the
Health Visitors, and the number of those who have come to the
infant consultations on the recommendation of mothers who had
previously attended.
b