Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-13
WILL ORGANIZE
SOCIETY TO AID
INFANTS HEALTH
PREVENTION OF MORTALITY
OF BABIES is OBJECT
EXPERTS ON cHlLDREN's coNDI-
TIoNs CONFER
Claim Made That 80 to 100 Per Gent
of Little Ones Die Because
of Separation from
Mothers
tpy Associated Press. !

Al prevention of infant mortality,
which ended here today, society for
the study and prevention of infant
mortality will be formally organized
Saturday morning.
Resolutions drawing attention to the
need of the work on the question were
passed.
Miss Mary r. Mason, agent of the
committee on assisting and providing
situations for mothers with infants of
New York city, outlined the work OF
the New York organization and of
similar associations elsewhere. The
high death rate among babies sepa-
rated from their mothers, amounting
frequently to from 80 to 100 per cent,
led to the establishment of agencies
for placing mothers in situations
where they could keep their children
and support them. Such work was be-
gun in Boston in 1873. in 1882 in Phila-
delphia and in 1893 in New York. 1t
was found that it was entirely practi-
cable Miss Mason said, to place wom-
en- with babies in domestic service,
chiefly i'm the country or in small
towns where the children could have
the benefit of good air, wholesome food
and the personal care of their mothers
Care OF Infants DlscuSSeu
Dr. Charles p. Putnam, president
and medical director of the Massachu-
setts Infants asylum, president of the
Associated Charities and chairman OF
the children's institutions of Boston
presented a paper at the session on
institutional prevention on the care
of Infants Apart from Their Mothers.
Beginning with a description OF the
old-fashioned founding hospital, the
speaker followed il with an account
of the work done by the Massachusetts
Infant asylum.
He showed by a contrast of past and
present methods of child caring, how
the idea had been developing that the
concept of child naturally included
the concept of a mother, and that the
welfare of one could not we'll be con-
sidered apart from that of the other
DIR. Emelyn Lincoln Coolidge, for
mer resident physician and visiting
physician to the out patient depart
ment of the Babies hospital of the
city of New York, assistant physician
I'm the department Of pediatrics and
OF the Lying-in hospital of New York
city, presented a paper on the care OF
infants who must be separated from
their mothers because of special need
on the part of the child. She said
that IL was a serious matter to sep
arate a mother and child, particularly
II the child were breast fed. but that
Il sometimes became necessary, when
the mother was unable to care for the
baby at home,
Nurse important Factor
II was pointed out today in the ses-
sion on institutional prevention that
the work of the visiting nurses Is one
, of the most important factors in the
fight against infant mortality. A
Of ba
some suggestion of the scope of her
influence in improving conditions in the
homes in the congested sections of our
larger cities, was afforded by paper
Assisting Mothers In the Care of
Sick Children in Their Own Homes
by Miss Lillian d. Wald, head or the
Nurses settlement in New York city.
DR.. H. ]. Gerstenberger, physician in
charge of the Babies dispensary ana
hospital of Cleveland, told of the ed
ucational campaign that has been
carried on by that hospital in instruct
ing the mothers who bring their chill
dren to the dispensary, in the proper
care of the babies, and particularly In
encouraging maternal nursing.
Believes in Study
In a paper pointing out the necessity
for more active interest in the subject
on the part of the small city Mr.. Sell
skar NJ Gum, health officer OF orange,
N j., emphasized the value of thor
ough study of the problem from the
statistical point of view
The results of some of the most re-
cent Investigations in regard to the m
heritance of abnormalities and diseases
were embodied in a paper by DR.. Z. b.
Davenport, director of the station for
experimental evolution, Long Island, N
Y. Greater precision has been acquired
,D,.fe eofA fY,F FaFn6iHtinoe
editary transmission since the estab-
Iishment of the principle that human
characteristics are inherited separately
of one another, that they do not blend
in heredity.
.'The Limits of Eugenics' was dis
cussed by DIR. Albert G.. Keller, pro-
fessor of the science of society at Yale
university. 'Tn a word" he said, "the
ultimate limits of the application OF
any social innovation lie in the ccus-
toms, conventions and habitudes OF the
society in question; lie in what Prof.
w. G. Sumner has aptly called the
Tolkways.'" Galton, in his desire to
introduce eugenics into the national
conscience like a new religion" really
wishes to get eugenics in among these
elemental conventions and habitudes.
Be Sure Babies Are Healthy
Prof. John M. Tyler of Amherst col
lege, spoke on 1.-THE Responsibility OF
the Medical Profession for Public Edu-
cation in Hygiene" ''It is evident" he
said, that the best means of decreasing
infant mortality is to make sure of a
race of healthy babies. Healthy chill
dren demand healthy parents The next
generation of parents is being made
strong or weak in home and school to-
day by environment furnished by pa
rents and teachers. These latter can
not be too WE'LL In an address on the
Foundations of Prevention DIR. Will
liam T. Sedgwick, professor of biology
at the Massachusetts, Institute of Tech
nology, Boston, traced the gradual
awakening to the possibility of preven-
ton Discussion of infant mortality in
the eighteenth century, he said, CEN
tered largely around infant damnation.
In the nineteenth century it shifted to
postmortem salvation, and in the twen-
tieth it turned toward prevention"
The institutional care of babies who
are in normal health, and the unneces-
sary separation of mother and child,
were strongly condemned at the con-
ference on prevention of infant mortal
ity this morning by Homer Folks of
New York, the secretary of the New
York Charities Aid association and the
chairman of the session on institutional
prevention.