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The dummy teat is still extensively used. If it falls on the floor,
it is rubbed momentarily on the mother's blouse or apron, lipped
by the mother, and replaced in the baby's mouth. This means at
least two risks for the infant—contamination from the floor, and
infection from the mother's mouth. If the mother suffers from
pulmonary tuberculosis, or from pyorrhoea alveolaris, these risks
are thereby much increased. It is quite a common occurrence to
see the dummy teat being cleaned in soapy water, which has
already been used for washing the older children. For in these
mean streets the standard of domestic cleanliness and of personal
cleanliness is on the whole a low one.
It must be admitted, however, that even in the slums may
be found rooms exceedingly clean, and very well kept. It is
difficult sometimes to rightly appreciate the point of view of the
slum-dweller. In a one-roomed tenement dwelt the father, mother,
and three children. There was very little furniture. On one
occasion at dinner time the father and mother sat at table on the
only two chairs they possessed, while the three children and a cat
were feeding on fish from one and the same dinner plate placed
on an up-ended tub. The cat clawed and mouthed what it could.
Sometimes the children gave the cat a part of a tit-bit, and themselves
ate the remnants which the cat had declined. When this
was pointed out to the mother, she observed, "We consider the
cat as one of us. I didn't think the cat would take no harm. I
didn't know that cats took the fevers."
The use of patent foods is not very common, though some
mothers in the very poorest streets buy very expensive foods,
even although they may have plenty of breast milk. One mother
bought some patent food because "it was such beautiful looking
stuff—it looked like silk, 5s. per tin." She thought "it was bound
to do baby good because it cost such a lot," and because it had
"'Used by Royalty and recommended by doctors,' printed on the
label." Such mothers are inclined to believe anything they see
in print, and are the prey of unscrupulous manufacturers who
advertise their wares extensively and mendaciously. Preserved or
dried milks, advertised under trade marks depicting a mare, an
ass, or a goat, are taken to be milks actually derived from these
animals, and are on that account wrongly considered to be
immensely superior to cow's milk.