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147
REPORT OF SENIOR MEDICAL OFFICER, ROYAL COLLEGE
OF ST. KATHARINE.
Changes in Upbringing.
The struggle for relief to the young from the tyranny of over-clothing
is one that infant welfare workers have carried on bravely for years.
But their reward seems to have come more slowly here than in almost
any other branch of their work. The tradition that most illness reaches
the young child through the influence of bodily chill has ruled the mind
for so long, that it has to many of us seemed almost unalterable. Without
doubt the medical profession has been reluctant to question the tradition
and put its truth or error to critical tests; and here, perhaps, as in other
respects the healthy have often had to suffer precautions necessarily
imposed on the weakly. No one doubts the value of warmly wrapping
a thin, premature infant in cotton wool. But the robust .well-conditioned
baby seems earlier and more easily capable of dealing with alterations
of temperature than it is given credit for. And once it is able to take
exercise on its own behalf, a healthy child can accommodate itself to
cold temperatures in a remarkable way. Resistance, however, is rapidly
lowered by any infectious process, and it is probably the frequency with
which infections, in such regions as the throat, escape detection, that
has given rise to the view that young children are especially vulnerable
to climatic changes. In a crowded household where time for systematic
outings is hard to come by, and the child is often indoors for days at a
stretch, infections become almost the rule and erratic outings may very
easily accentuate the symptoms and consolidate the tradition.
The discovery that light plays a really important part in the
maintenance of health as well as in the cure of disease sounded a thrilling
challenge to this ancient timidity. It is entirely antagonistic to the view
that infancy and childhood must be spent enveloped in many layers of
suffocating clothing. We seem, indeed, just now to be watching a
collapse of customs as dramatic as that which befell the walls of Jericho.
It is some twenty years since Rollier showed achievements which were
staggering, but it was thought impossible for a long while to apply his
methods in this climate, especially in our cities. Artificial light clinics
began to familiarise parents with the fact that the child's skin has
important positive functions, and acts as a medium through which health
can be directly influenced. The illustrated papers served a most useful
purpose in shewing how rapidly the adult population can change its