Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-10

The city of Baltimore today is playing
host to a convention in which more heart
interest is centered than in any conven-
ton of the year. The American Associa-
ton for the Study and Prevention of In
FAINT Mortality convenes there for a ses-
son of several days. When it Is stated
that there are more than 100000 deaths a
year of children who have not passed the
period of infancy, the amount of sorrow
and suffering involved is appalling.
1t has been estimated by DR.. Irving
Fisher that - per cent of all the deaths
of children below the age of two years
could be prevented if the country eXer
cised its knowledge OF sanitary measures
He est mates that 81 per cent of the chill
dren who die between the ages OF two
and eight years might have their life span
heightened if only ignorance. poverty and
dirt were banished from the neghborhood
of the cradle and the trundle bed.
Last year the American Academy of
Medicine called a conference of men and
women interested in preventing infant
mortality to meet at Yale University. The
call challenged the support of nearly
every leader in the child welfare move
Y'ent in the United States. The literature
brought out on the question of preventing
tons that it was decided to create an as
ISOLATION. to meet annually. for the pur-
pose 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 in
formation of the medical fraternity and
the humanitarians Of America.
The academy at the Yale conference went
on record as nfavor of Uniform birth and
death registration laws. the reporting to
the health authorities of all communica-
BILE. diseases and the training of all school
teachers in the essentials of physical life,
that they in turn may consciously and UNI
consciously guide their pupils into more
Intelligent valuation of the inheritance of
life and the responsibilities and duties of
home making. 1t believes the saying that
the training of a child begins with it's
grandparents is true. and would, there
fore study intimately the prenatal as
vel as the postnafal Influences that make
for the HI alth and well being of the in
FAINT population of the nation.
The situation confronting the American
people today is peculiar one. Preventive
medicine gradually
Present Situation has extended the
n,:o span Of life of those
period, but in the face of gradually de-
creasing birth rate little has been done
toward decreasing the infant death rate.
This spells an economic scarcity Of chill
dren, 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 dc ath rate
has been wonderfully curtailed. 1t is not
long 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 generally
agree that there are many prenatal con-
ditiOns conducive to a high death rate
among infants. The association is aim
ing to arouse the people of the country
to this situation, that every child
that comes into the world may be blessed
with healthy parenthood, unhandicapped
by inherited conditions.
4
life is impure milk. In the city of Roches-
ter the mortality
Greatest Menace rate among infants
- ~r:,,- fell off Is per cent
40 AnPune A"' after the institution
of a carefully guarded municipal milk
supply 1t also has been shown that,
even under the pest possible cOnoll1OuS,
cows milk is not as good for the infant
as natures nourishment. Calves may
flourish on it, but the records of Europe
and America show that the bottle-fed
baby has less chance Of winning lifes
struggle than the one to which the bot
tie is stranger. ....-........
The association is strongly of the opin-1
ion that a baby unnecessarily forced to
live on a bottle is having it's life gam
bled away. This is especially true in
view of the fact that nearly three-fourths
of the babies of the country who arc
bottle-fed get milk unsuited to their needs
If 1t has not. indeed, been produced under
insanitary conditions
Ignorance reigns with reference to other
things as we'll as the handling of milk.
statistical inquiry among a large num-
Der of poor mothers showed that only
one out of every five gave her baby
water to drink. The same is true in the
case of salt. One physician records the
fact that he asked a mother what she
fed her baby. Same thing my mother
fed me- was the laconic reply. What
was that?" pressed the physician. Same
thing she ate,'' was the answer, When
he further queried what her mother had