The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-11-14
Intelligence Applied to tho Raising
and Training Of Little
Ones.
Mrs. Francis Fisher Woods Study OF the
Question and the Deduction She
Draws,

name 'above the senior wrangler's" in tn
greatest of English universities. Their
was time when men believed q woman
physically incapable of the strain Of colleg,
life. The college-br woman takes OF hel
corset, builds her gymnasium and shows az
equal statistical average with that o,
women under the most favorable condi
tions, with better promise for the future il
her hygienic, scientific knowledge of the
life, says the New York Sun. Again, men
said that the college bred woman would
lose her charm for man and remain forever
beautifully perfected but I'M
plucked blossom 81 the virgin
stem. College statistics show
that the proportion Of marriages among
graduates not only compares favorably
with that among other women, but is con-
tinually increasing, 30 that it il difficult ia
fill important places with competent women
on account of their tendency to assume the
cares of domestic rather than professional
life. Last and Rravest charge of all, the
college-bred woman was said to be incapa-
BILE Of the duties Of motherhood. Mrs.
Francis Fisher Wood, college graduate
we'll known in philanthropical and educa-
tional a. we'll as social circles Of New York,
has made an exhaustive study of this sub
ject and finds as result of her investiga-
tions that greater proportion Of the chill
dren Of college-bred women survive in
fancy than do those Of the mothers lacking
the scientific training of college life.
know 1t i constantly argued" Mrs.
Wood ASSERTS, shat common sense and not
science is the most valuable capital for a
mother, and that experience and not theory
is the safe guide in matters maternal, but 1
venture to disagree with this oft-repeated
dictum. Old-fashioned New England moth
ers are often extolled as an ideal type Of
the staple OF popular newspaper jokes in
their alleged futile attempts to care for
their offspring. Yet statistics show that
the mortality among native New England
stock exceeds that Of any other part in the
United States, and the proportion of deaths
among the ridlculed college women nine
tenths of their children survive infancy, a
record which believe has never been
eQualed In any country or age since statistics
furnished the data for such deductions.
The average woman has experience in
plenty and common sense without exper-
ienoe, but she is not scientiho-not sus-
ceptible to new truths. She has made up
her mind very firmly on the narrow range
OF subjects within her personal experience,
them. The moro experience an obstinate
woman acquires, the further she travels
from the beginning of wisdom.
II assert that woman scientifically edu-
Gated can in three hours be taught more
tellectually unframed can learn from per
sonal experience in lifetime. In other
occupations less exaoting than mothers
We allow experience alone to count for lit
tie. We call man quack who attempts
tai Of experience. with no actual study Of
its general scientific pFinciples
"A mothers responsibilities are NO lees
heavy than those Of the physician sho en-
ploys.. Yet she demands Of him that he
velopment OF science, while she herself eoes
back for precept and principle to the tradi-
tions Of her grandmother. Experience has
no accepted standard by which to Judge Of
its merits. II is merely what Mrs. Smith
DID nfty years ago, or what Mrs. Brown
said what was true. Besides, deriving gen-
eral rules from individual cases ID faliscy.
Why should wish to know how Mrs. Brown |
fed her babies fifty years ago or how
Grandmother Smith cared for hers, when |
tain from the greatest living authority il
the care OF children the whole science Of
all the worlds greatest intellects along the |
line of infant theories.''
And do you think al this scientific |
knowledge would help 2 mother TO quiet
the soothing care Of the old fashioned
grandmother?"
20 no! mean that scientific knowledge
teaches mother that there's NO need Of |
having crying babies or allowing them to |
ret With colo. Ny baby never cries and
though tradition declares that crying 10 |
beneficial and sign Of intelligence. since
the child that never cries 10 3 fool.' md |
That colo and pains are natural incidents |
20 oa6yhood. The mothers of experimental
their motheFs did before them, accepting
the colo more resignedly than the baby
does % necessary evil. Scientific mothers |
investigate and find out that they are feed- |
ing the colo to their babies by introducing
myr1ade OF destructive microbes into The
stomach in the milk and water they give /
them, or are slowly starving them UPON the I
natural food they supply. and which they
arc unable to learn. by analytical examina-
tion, lacks. % It frequently does, the necss-
sary elements of nutrition.
"There il another tradition that the
dreaded second summer Of babyhood 10 q
moro critical period than the first summer,
and that the summer season il to be feared |
anyway. travelled with my baby all the
much-derided artificial food, and he was
never sick day or an hour. Science
taught me that the summer illness OF chill
dren was duo TO the presence Of greater,
0umOer0 OF microbes IN the food.
and to be sure that such microbes were de.
stroyed before they fed upon the intestinal
organs of the child, and also before thew
had exhausted the richness Of the milk /
gave him. Science teaches me, too, that
the second summer of child properly
nourished should be and ia less fraupht
With danger than the hrst. because statis-
tics show that With every month Of
existence child's hold ON life is strength
ened. OF course meet with CON
eiderable opposition from mothers whose
faith in tho old superstitions IL genu-
Inc and intense. Ono lady said that she
vas thankful that her brood Of children
came along before We knew anything
lbert artificial food, chemica analysis,
and microscopioal investigation. NY chill.
dren had natures nourishment until they
we're old enough to como to the table and
at what tho rest did, she said. How many
children did you havsr asked her. sTen.
me answered proudly, and then lees tri-
1mphhntly added. hut six died in infanov.'
thought, but did mot say, that the ohnmi-
al analysis she despiDed would pr} Sblv
have shown her that her breast-fed chii. :
aren were starved, and that @ result Of
Tho microscopic discoveries which she de-
pFeciated one could possibly to-day have
laved all six By artificial feeding. Another
ady, after asking in detail about INV uye-I
bem with my baby, said Severely: when
ron lose yoar baby, q you undoubtedly
vii before he = year old, you viii regret
having BEEN 10 oelf-Vilads And ~ ri