Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-24

zl4 per l0O0 IN the - S'''t
District of Columbia to 1911 per 1000
in Michigan, OF 106 large cities,
Charleston, with her great negro pop
ulation, was found to lead in infant
mortality with 419.5 out of every thou
sand born there, and Los Angeles came
last with It's per thousand.
Bearing these striking and pitiful
facts In mind the nation is awakening
to the need of some concerted action
that will protect babies until they are
old enough to Withstand most child
hood ailments. The majority of dis
eases of babies come from lack Of
nutrition, from indigestible foods and
from contagious diseases brought in
milk. The greatest mortality is among
the babies of factory women. These
must be left at home all day and be
fed on artificial foods. The great eff
fort Is now being made by physicians
to have mothers feed their babies at
their breast. If this were done the
death rate would be reduced one-third
or one-half and the sick list four
fifths. France, in her great effort to
reverse conditions that have made her
death, rate greater than her birth rate.
has instituted In many instances the
practice OF setting aside retiring rooms
their babies at regular Intervals with
out loss Of pay.
In the first year Of its life every child
consumes 500 quarts of milk. The
present educational campaign Is to so
interest mothers that they will either
feed their babies themselves or secure
the best possible milk for this use. 1t
Is this question of pure milk that is so
big, for where from 10 to II per cent of
breast-fed babies die 351s per cent of
,x-4ta nf, E,1 L. Il
death. To get pure milk means q plan
Of general education that will extend
from the homes OF the 100000 people
whose diaries prepare the milk. to the
homes OF the $4,000. 900 people who con-
sumo 1t. Last fall thirty-five experts
met in Washington to talk the matter
over and decided that milk to be ac-
cepted must show no more than 10000
bacteria to the cubic centimeter. Store
milk has been found to have 10000 to
1000 bacteria to twenty drops. To
render the babies' share OF this milk
pure and digestible is the problem of
the medical and philanthropic people of
this country.
New York city uses zo0.ooo, 900 quarts
Of the annual output of the dairies.
and SO far has science taken hold there
that rs per cent OF the total milk sup-
ply of the city Is pasteurized. Be-
cause of this work on the part of New
York philanthropists. led by Nathan
Straus and his seventeen milk stations.
the decrease in infant mortality has
been marked. There are enough babies
in New York city to keep these seven
teen depots and as mnay more busy all
the year around. About $4,000 babies
are born in New York each summer,
and until the establishment of the
Straus depots where 1000 are fed daily.
the death rate for children under five
years old was 962 per thousand for all
the year. 1854 per thousand in the sum-
mer. Now 1t is slightly over so per
thousand all the year and 81 per
thousand In the summer.
The present New York movement
represents a combination Of physicians
workers from city hospitals. charitable
and municipal organizations nurseries
and diet kitchens who find an urgent
need for their aiding the city health
department. They have been working
as separate and independent organiza-
lions for the past few years. Now they
mean to work as an entire body. secur-
ing better results from cooperation.
More than eighty nurses VIII be In
stalled for the summer work, and these
will hunt ont all the babies that have
been born since April 1. and will give
the mothers the necessary instruction
in properly feeding, dressing and caring
for them. A volunteer corps of physi-
clans. numbering about sixty, will be
formed.
New York philanthropy led the
world In the establishing of milk depots
where modified or pasteurized milk
could be furnished the babies of the
poor. DR.. Henry Koplik reported in
1890 that he had opened laboratory at
Eastern dispensary, New York city.
some time before, and later he corr
tinued this at the Good Samaritan dis
pensary. Hamburg opened milk dis
pensarieS in 1890 and Paris In 1909 TT,