New-York tribune., 1910-08-28

Are East Side babies sdoped? Are tired,
overburdened. ignorant tenement mothers.
,,v running out TO the corner drug store
snd getting something, they couldn't tell
what. to keep the Md quiet" unknowingiy
u,antins the opium habit in their children
and foistipg a race OF future degenerates
upon .his city? DR.. Ernest j. Lederie,
preslden; OF tie Board of Health. thinks so,
So convinced IS he of the dangers that iurk
in certain soothing syrups sold for fretful
babies. as well as in some cough medicines
ard in the so-called tuberculosis cures,
hat he came back 10 New York last Fri
day from his deferred vacation in the coun-
~ 20 make q second attempt at an ordi-
nance 10 control the sale of morphine and
mixtures containing morphine His first
a.ter,,p. was MADE last June, when it ap-
reared that the time was not ripe. But at
Fridays meeting of the board the thing
was done. and Amendment iS2 of the Sani-
tary Code. which formerly covered only dle
sale OF cocaine, now, in addition, forbids
The sale of morphine or salt of morphine
either alone or in combination with other
substances, by any person in the city. ex-
cept upon the prescription of a physician
When DR.. Lederle left town to resume his
long step had been taken in the direction
OF stamping out the drug habit, even
though il is one thing to make law like
that and another thing to enforce it.
But are babies drugged nowadays as
much as the Health Commissioner holds
they are? Is he right in believing that the
sale Of drugs with opium in them for minor
baby troubles is very large. and that many
yCp,t1i raThe- no without and
flour than TO let the paregoric run out? Are
not the dispensaries and the district nurses
educating mothers out of the habit-which,
u must be confessed, was begun by the old
fashioned doctors-of flying TO the soothing
syrup whenever baby has pain in its
little '-tummyr'2 AS the prorerb intimates,
doctors disagree. and Hl.le of a number of
physicians interviewed on the subject by a
Tribune reporter. every one declared that
Fridays amendment 10 the Sanitary Code
Is an excellent thing and needed, they diff
fered widely as TO the amount Of drugging
in babylon
Dr. Josephine Femenway. OF the Babies
Hospital. at Lexington avenue and a5th
street. is one OF those who think that edu-
cation is beginning to tell.
Very very few OF the babies brought
here show evidences Of having been given
harmful medicines" she said. 'On the con-
trary, most of the mothers seem dreadfully
afraid OF upsetting the baby's stomach, and
sometimes when We prescribe a simple
remedy viii be reluctant 20 give il on that
account on the other hand, a baby was
brought in here one day whose mother had
been administering paregoric regularly al
frequent intervals. till the little creature
was actually drunk. Cnquestionably. a
law is needed TO govern the sale OF such
medicines The babies that have these
harmful things put into their systems are,
generally. babies that are boarded out
Most mothers want 10 do the best thing for
their ba abies. and now that SO many OPP
for-tunities for learning are open 10 them
the habit of dosing has greatly decrea sed-
Miss Julia Hunt. superintendent OF the
Nursery and Childs Hospital at Lexing-
ton avenue ard 5lst street, held that the
East Side infant didn't have its little IN
sides troubled with baneful sleeping medl-
cines to any alarming extent
Hired nurse girls give such things on
the sly sometimes she said. I've had
mothers report instances where they found
or suspected il had been done, but We sell
dom encounter a mother who does it