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32
1912]

The Object of the Notification of Births Act, 1907.—When
the Notification of Births Bill was passing through the Houses of Parliament
one of the chief arguments used in favour of its becoming law was that it
would give local authorities an early intimation of all the births occurring in
their districts, and thereby enable them to reach the mothers, the majority of
whom do not receive medical attendance, so that they might be instructed as
to the best means of caring and rearing their infants. The Act was hailed
with enthusiasm by most Sanitary Authorities, because they had long perceived
that many infants lost their lives through improper feeding, and that many
others from the same cause grew up weaklings, who would probably succumb on
the first attack of serious illness, or later on become derelicts, who would find their
way to the workhouses at a comparatively early period of life. They perceived,
to use Sir Lauder Brunton's terse phrase, that it would be " a great deal
cheaper to spend pence on children than pounds on paupers." They therefore,
at all'events for the most part, appointed Health Visitors whose usefulness
has now been widely recognised throughout the United Kingdom. They have
done and are doing a great and beneficent and wonderful work- They not
only induce mothers to suckle their children, which is the best of all methods
of feeding, but when these mothers are unable to suckle they teach them by
ocular demonstration—which is the only way to teach untrained and uninformed
minds—how to feed their infants, and on what to feed them, at the varying weeks
or months of their young lives. But they do more. They often create a
wholesome rivalry among mothers, and as a result we are finding baby shows
occurring all over the country, at which mothers exhibit their children with a
wholesome pride. Where they are to be found, you will also now frequently
find that a school for mothers has been established at which the mothers
seek advice either about their infants or themselves. These visitors
and these institutions are now more required than at any previous time in our
history, because owing to the lower birth-rate it is more necessary to save the
lives of those that have been born; and not only to save their lives but to so
feed them that they may grow up to be bodily " fit" for all the stresses,
worries, and strains of modern life.