The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-03-04
ALL ABOUT BABIES.
Arched Palate Mark of Crime, Says Doctor, Who Shocked Mothers.

From the Chicago Chronicle.
 A thin, high-arched palate is a certain sign of criminality. Dr. F. w. Belknap startled twenty-five mothers with this fact yesterday morning. He was talking for the School of Domestic Arts and Science on the subject: Nervous Symp- toms in Children" The twenty-five wo- men, all of whom are mothers, were at once overwhelmed with fear concerning their babies palates.
 Dr. BelSnap emphasized his remark by adding: '"Three-fourths of the boys at the parental school have the arched palate and the percentage Is much greater at the John Worthy school. Indeed, it is one of the certain marks of the criminal. An other sign of degeneracy is the abnormal appetite. Some children develop a craving for beer, coffee and tobacco. They will even eat plaster off the wall. The mothers who give their babies beer and coffee cul- tivate their abnormality"
 The mothers present at the lecture were shocked at the idea, but the doctor ex- plained: You would be astonshed to know how much that is done among the poor. The children of the very poor al- most invariably have either tea or coffee. l have patients in the Italian district. In some cases l have known p people to be living In tiny room with a sick baby The windows were not only closed but stuffed with cotton. What chance did the baby have?
 Once l asked to see the food they were giving the baby. They showed me q pint Of milk and we picked out IS flies They give their babies coffee and beer from inc time they are three months old, and the fact that the school children of those dis tricts are underfed has largely to do with their abnormalities. The children of the Jones school, many of them, get LID at o'clock in the morning and peddle papers until school time They go to school without their breakfasts.
 If these same children are sent to the parental school, as frequently happens. they are we'll fed and live for perhaps the first time normal regular lives When they return al the end of the year they are different boys. The teachers say they are brighter more even tempered, strong CT and happier. They may remain so for perhaps three months, until the irregll- lar hours and lack of sufficient nourish- ment begin to tell. They grow white and drawn; they are nervous and cratic the signs of unrest show themselves and this leads to delinquency and perhaps worse,
 The saffron tea which grandmother used to make is good for the baby. pr. Belknap has said so Mothers who had outgrown the herb tea idea in fact had held it to scorn, learned this with aston lshment. Yet 1t is not the herb which counts, it is the hot water Hot water is good for babies and should be gen. erously administered. It may be pepper mint tea that is just as old-fashioned, but in that case, save the peppermint, it has a service to perform.
 Every mother at yesterdays lecture had baby with an ailment. Every mother, too, had a theory for that ailment and expounded it joyfully while seeking ad- vice.
 What does it mean that my baby holds his thumb between the first and second finger? Is it an inherited habit or sign of nervous weakness?"
 We live in. flat how shall exercise my boy?"
 Thus the questions ran. and the an- swers:
 Your baby may have slight indiges- tion.' He should play out of doors, not merely go for walks with his best clothes on. Mothers are often afraid of having their children come in contact with other children or of soiling their clothes. They can't get too dirty"
 The teething period and the period of fatigue were discussed in detail, the sta tistics of the child study depart ment of the board of education being used in review of the latter subject. The lecture was the last of series given by child specialists for the mothers of the school.