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from summer diarrhœa. What I have there stated applies with
equal force to almost all the other diseases of infancy and it is
unnecessary to repeat those remarks here. It will be enough to say
that the question is one that rests so much with the knowledge and
capacity of the mother on the subject of infant rearing and domestic
hygiene in general, that it is to her better education in these matters
we must look, in the future, for any substantial reduction in the
infant mortality. There is no age too young at which to begin the
training of girls in these, the most serious and important duties of
their lives. They are the things in a woman's up-bringing that
really matter, and if a right knowledge on such domestic subjects
were possessed generally by the women of a community, the effect
for good on its health and well-being would be almost incalculable.
Now that the Sanitary Authority has become also the Education
Authority, we look to see a much needed reform inaugurated, and
an educational system that has ignored some of the most vital and
pressing needs of the nation, remodelled into one in which the
conditions of modern life are recognised and some practical instruction
in the right way to face its problems, provided for.
Early in the year the Council made a very important and useful
addition to the staff of the Sanitary Department by the appointment
of a Woman Inspector. Thanks to this step we have been able to
break new ground in the work of inspection and visitation, that
promises an excellent harvest of good results in the future.
The most important function of a Woman Inspector lies with
this question of the prevention of sickness and death amongst young
children, and I have been able to arrange for a system of visitation
whereby all houses where children have recently been born and
whose parents are too poor to afford medical advice in these matters,
are visited shortly after the birth, and instructions given to the
mother as to how best to rear her infant and guard against the many
ills and dangers to which it is subject during the first year of life.
Subsequent visits are made at the end of the first and second six
months, and on all these occasions notes are taken on cards relative
to the feeding of the infant, the sanitary condition of the house, etc.