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42
1909]
With respect to premature births and congenital defects, it may be said
that they frequently denote some neglect by the mother in the pre-natal life of
the child, and medical investigation has traced much of it to her ignorance
and to the want of care of her own health when bearing a child. Indeed,
it is not too much to say that many of the deaths from the diseases that have
just been mentioned are attributable to woeful ignorance on the part of mothers.
It would seem, therefore, that the time has arrived when communities must
be plainly asked whether they are to allow the children to be killed through
ignorance, or are to kill ignorance, and so save the children. This is the
dilemma with which all communities who are not adopting special measures
to save infant life, both before and after birth, are now faced. There has been,
no doubt, a very great awakening in this country with respect to infantile
mortality, brought about in a great measure by a serious reduction in the
birth-rate, and it is more and more felt that once a child has been begotten, care
should be taken that its life shall not be wasted. Since 1899 the previous high
rates of mortality have been checked, and, indeed, up to the present year there has
been a steady fall, which most observers attribute to the quickening of the public
conscience during recent years. Not only has this been so in England, but
among our own community, and indeed also among some of the Continental
nations, especially Prussia, Denmark and Norway. In France it has been even
more noticeable still, chiefly because it was here that the recent development of
measures to prevent infantile mortality was commenced. These measures were
specially devoted to the encouragement of natural feeding and the improvement
of artificial methods. The result has been that whereas the French
mortality was formerly considerably above that of the English, it has of
recent years been almost as low as that of this country. Inasmuch as
modern methods have most certainly shown that a decrease in the
infant mortality rate by the organised teaching of mothers and those
who have charge of children can be attained, it seems to make it more
incumbent than ever that redoubled care of the infants should be adopted in
every community. It is among the poor especially that the mortality is
greatest, but it is also among the poor that the birth-rate has not diminished;
and because the parents are poor and cannot always provide medical and other
means to save their children, it becomes the duty of the community to do their
best to save these lives. This responsibility is more and more felt as years
go by, and everywhere throughout England movements may be observed,
either philanthropic or official, whose objects are to teach mothers how
they should bring up their children. On the continent, as well as in
the United States, this is also the case. Indeed, according to Sir John