El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-11-10


which more heart interest is CEN
| tered than in any convention of the
year. The American Association for
the Study and Prevention of Infant
| Mortality convenes there for session
of several days. When it is stated that
there are more than 100000 deaths
year of children who have not passed
the period of infancy, the amount OF
sorrow and suffering involved is ap-
palling.
1t has been estimated by DR.. Irving
Fisher that AZ percent of all the deaths
of children below the age of two years
could be prevented if the country ex-
ercised it's knowledge of sanitary meas
ures. He estimates that ST percent of
the children who die between the ages
of two and eight years might have
their life-span heightened if only igno-
rance poverty and dirt were banished
from the neighborhood of the cradle
and the trundle-bed
Association is FOrmed.&
Last year the American Academy of
Medicine called a conference of men
and women interested in preventing
infant mortality to meet at Yale uni
versity The call challenged the sup
port of nearly every leader in the child
welfare movement in the United States.
The literature brought out on the Ques-
ton of preventing infant mortality was
SO rich in suggestions that it was de-
cided to create an association, to meet
annually, for the purpose of mutual
study and consideration of the problem
before that conference. The papers
read before the conference have been
published in book form for the infor-
nation of the medical fraternity and
the humanitarians Of America.
The academy at the Yale conference
went on record as in favor of uniform
| birth and death registration laws; the
reporting, to the health authorities, of
! all communicable diseases; and the
| training of all school teachers in the
| essentials of physical life, that they in
| turn may consciously and unsconscious-
i ly guide their pupils into a more intel
ligent valuation of the inheritance OF
| life and the responsibilities and duties
of home making. 1t believes the say
| ing that the training of a child begins
with its grandparents is true, and
would, therefore, study intimately the
prenatal as well as the postnatal influ-
ences that make for the health and
| we'll being of the infant population of
the nation.
Situation is Peculiar.
The situation confronting the Amert-
can people today is a peculiar one. Pre-
ventive medicine gradually has extend
ed the span of life of those beyond the
infantile period; but in the face OF
gradually decreasing BIRTH rate, little
has been done toward decreasing the
infant death rate This spells an eco
nomic scarcity Of children, and has
aroused the thinking men Of the nation
to the necessity OF infant conservation
1t is true that in certain progressive
cities the infant death rate has been
,lo-- full 1rfo 1ad e
since one child out of every three born
in New York City died before Its first
birthday Now the rate is only one out
of every six
Medical men and sociologists gener-
ally agree that there are many prena-
tai conditions conducive to high
death rate among infants The associ-
alton is aiming to arouse the people OF
the country to this situation, that
every child that comes into the world
may be blessed with healthy parent
hood, unhandicapped by inherited con-
ditions.
Menace of Impure Milk.
Perhaps the greatest menace to child
life is impure milk In the city or
Rochester the mortality rate among
infants fell off 65 percent after the in
stitution of a carefully guarded munic-
ipal milk supply. II also has been
BILE conditions, cows milk Is not as
good for the infant as natures nour-
ishment. Calves may flourish on it.
but the records of Europe and America
show that the bottle-fed baby has less
chance of winning life's struggle than
the one to which the bottle is a stran-
ger. The association is strongly of the
opinoin that a baby unnecessarily
forced to live on a bottle is having its
life gambled away This is especially
true in view of the fact that nearly
three-fourths of the babies of the coun-
try who are bottle-fed get milk I'M
suited to their needs, if it is not i'm
deed been produced under unsanitary
conditions.
Ignorance reigns with reference to
other things as well as the handling OF
milk A statistical inquiry among
large number of poor mothers showed
that only one out of every five gave
their babies water to drink. The same
is true in the case of salt. One physi-
clan records the fact that he asked a
mother what she fed her baby Same
thing my mother fed me-" was the Ia
comic reply. What was that?" pressed
the physician. Same thing she ate,"
was the answer. When further queried
what her mother had eaten, she repli
ed that is was buttermilk and rye
bread. Asked what she was eating, she
replied: ''Sauerkraut and sausage.
Country Baby Stronger.
Figures covering many years show it
is far better to be born in the country
than4n the city. The country baby has
SO percent more chance successfully to
weather the dreaded first year than the
city infant. This is attributed in part
to the excess of bottle-fed babies in the
city and in part to the better sanitary
surroundings of the country. Wher
ever city children have been taken to
the country in numbers, the result al
ways has been a diminishing death rate
among them. The improved transpor-
tation facilities that permit the city
worker TO have a suburban home have
proved an important factor in the child
saving campaign.
The experience of the social workers
a Sea Breeze and Junior Sea Breeze
indicate how much NAV be done in low
ering the infant mortality rate by the
observance of known rules Of health.
Sea Breeze is a New York philanthropy
for INDECENT mothers and helpless la
bies. A record %as kept OF 500 seri
ously sick babies brought there from