The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-06-01

nothing else should be taken during
the first six months Of life. !
Whatever else is put inside the IL
fant passes through undigested, and
not only does not nourish, but may
injure the delicate digestive tract
and prove a poison rather than a
food. Pure mil'z under the control
Of boards of health ana the inspec-
tion Of cattle is the proper safeguard
to throw around rle infant for its
protection.
No food is more chemically unsta-
bic, and more\ certain to deteriorate
by exposure to- the air, than milk.
d, Country Districts are in the matter
] milk supply even worse off than
ties, fer IN citi4 cattle are under the
control of boards Of health. The
great advantage (which country child
rem enjoy over eity children in pure
air and better surroundings is les
sened by the irapossibility of getting
milk that cannot be questioned.
Even tuberculosis may be convey
ed from Tuberculosis cattle and the
innocent perish.
Between infancy and the age at
which we begin the education of our
children, or the school period, there
is a gap Of some five years. This is
, a time at which most harm or much
good may be done. We have not a
compulsory system Of school atten-
dance, which every State should
have, and the interim in some cases
is much prolonged, and in others IN
definite. After the infant is lost
sight of, after it passes babyhood and
is allowed to grow up, if it gets
wholesome food, however coarse, even
though scanty in quantity, it thri7es,
provided that the first necessity Of
life is not stinted-abundance Of
fresh air. Fresh air and wholesome
food are the essential prerequisites
for the proper development Of the
child.
The children of gypsies are far
healthier in their free open air sur
roundings than those Of the same
station in life in crowded city slums.
7 recently was compelled to compare
in my mind a camp of gypsy children
on the suburbs of Oh town with
others in our cotton mills with whom
I daily came in contact. The years
which follow babyhood are years IN
which much mischief is done, always
preventable but sometimes lrremedla-
bic.
The death-rate although not so high
as the first year of life increase IS ab-
normally high up to the fifth year.
Children are often crowded in the
slums of our great cities and not
allowed any out Of doors exercise
only on the streets where they
brea the il the impure dust and MI
crobes of fatal diseases.
During this critical time IN its Life
upon which its future health and
vigor depend the child is often de-
prived of the proper food, both in
quality and quantity. Even among
parents fairly we'll off ignorance OF
how children should be fed is so pro-
found that their children suffer as
much from improper food as the
children Of the poorer from hunger.
"This is the greatest error Of all
the rest.''
I sometimes feel that parenthood
should be denied such people, as the
mother denied her son the privilege
of going into the water until he
learned how to swim.
If society were farseeing and wise
it would adopt rules applicable to
the ignorant parents as well as the
poor that would instruct them in the
proper care OF their chlldren-ooth
as to the feeding and the prevention
of infectious diseases. In the homes
of the ignorant and poor is the nur-
sery of the germs Of the deadly dis
eases; and the most elementary prin-
ciples of health demand that they be
destroyed at their source. The deadly
army should not be allowed to as
semble in secret behind closed doors,
only to burst forth in destruction and
sweep the nurseries Of all classes.
The incipient small pox, diptheria,
scarlat;na, etc; which a physician
could have stamped ont, is allowed
to run its course, infection is car
ried into the streets and schools; 1t
becomes an epidemic which costs hun