Evening star., 1902-08-08
POOR LITTLE BABES!
INFANTS SUFFER FROM HOT
WEATHER AND BLUE MILK.
Discomforts of Life in the Tenements
of New York-Be Free
With Ice.


This Is a story OF hot weather and milk
! Hot weather and milk. taken together. are
very hard on babies. All those thin. large
eyed little creatures at the dispensary OF
the Babies Hospital thought so yesterday.
Iheir great eyes, staring out OF their white.
haggard. little faces, seemed to inquire
muteiy why they were obliged to pass any
thing so disagreeabe as their second sum-
mer in world of tenament houses and 80
degrees in the shade, cent milk and no
ice chest. Some Of the babies made these
inquiries audibTy. The room was full of
little, moaning. inarticulate sounds, as one
baby after another plaintively gave tongue
TO Its feelings in this regard. But there
was one who never ceased. Every instant
his voice rose in a despairng Shrek His
wall was steady, persistent. maddening:
ana without rest or pause his poor mother
walked the floor with him. Her eye was
glazed and suffering Her limbs trembled
beneath her: her face had the look of a
hunted creature; yet still she paced and at
times stopped the wailing mouth with
Kisses Ii was o'clock in the afternoon
ana since IL the night before the baby had
maintained that cry, Not an instant's 8
sleep, not a moments rest for any one in
the tenement house fat For two weeks
the CRYING had been nearly continuous
The father was unable to go to work on
account of sleepless nights The mothers
nerves were worn to frazzles
Away to Cool Breezes.
Dr. Ellen Lowell. the imperturbable Young
dlspensary assistant. was outwardly undis-
turbed, but inwardly pitiful She asked
the mother If she were willing to let the
baby be taken 10 Oceanic where, amid the
cool breezes and trained attendance of the
city'S summer hospital for its sick babies
perhaps somebody could discover a cause
and remedy for that ceaseess crying The
poor mother consented gladly and carried
away the little bundle Of personified wall.
Silence fell like a benediction on the room
for all the other babies had grown still I'm
sheer astonishment at this ones persist
ence. Indeed little colored two-yea r-old,
with sore face, after listening to the
cries for a time had gravely offered the
sick baby his own little box of ointment
which he held in his hands.
The inquiries and the prescribing and the
weighing went on, for all the little babies
were undressed and laid in the tin pan of
pair of grocer's scales, like a sack of sugar
or pound of cheese, and weighed, and
then the weight marked down for future
reference. If next week a baby is found
to have gained they know he is better even
though his tired mother does not think so.
Malnutrition.
With the older children malnutrition.
lack of vitality, seemed to be a cause of
trouble. There was one little fellow who
would eat nothing. His mother said he
didn't eat enough to keep a bird alive. He
would never play with the other children,
and it took him fifteen minutes to climb
the stairs. Then there were two little girls
with a marked delicacy and refinement of
contour and they would not eat. either.
The mother said in discouraged way
that they would not drink milk at all. and
that boiled milk especially was anathema
to them. They would not eat meat or veg
etables. nor touch single egg. Eggs
beaten up raw they scorned, even when en-
rfched with sugar and disguised with tea
or milk. In fact they would take nothing
but few mouthfulS of soup now and then,
in a casual way, and for the rest they
merely wished to drown themselves in ice
water, lemonade and other refreshing
drinks of summer time. The children were
thin and pale, and constantly losing weight.
But at the Babies Hospital they have re-
duced the feeding of the baby to a science,
as proved by the paper of DR.. Charles Gil
more kerley before the American Pediatric
Society at Buffalo last summer when he
reported on 1913 cases of summer complaint,
only 2 per cent of which were lost
Ice Arrests the Germs
'Ice all the way along" said DR.. y. Cur
tice Holt. who was in charge of the dis
pensary yesterday. from the time the milk
leaves the COW till 1t is warmed for the
baby'S bottle, is the only safety. The
germs will not develop in bottled milk that
is kept ice, and if it is clean milk in the
first place 1t is safer than any milk in
which the germs have once been allowed
to develop, even if sterilized two or three
times afterward. There is certain raw milk
in the city which has never been treated in
any way. on which babies thrive because 1t
has been so carefully cooled"