Arizona republican., 1910-03-09
MISS LEWIS TALK ON
 HEALTH RESPONSIBILITY
An Instructive Paper Read Before the Woman's Club by Teacher of
 Domestic Science.

| woman club by MISS kutn NJ l4cNlS. ! teacher of domestic science in the city schools. Miss Lewis read q paper on ! the subject. her conclusion being that
 the mother shares in a large degree
 the responsibility. Extracts from the
 paper are printed with this article.
 The meeting was under the. direc- 1 ton of the department of civics-eco- monies. of which Mrs w. w McNcff | is chairman. The music consisted of | several vocal selections rendered by 1 Miss Catherine Wolfe. Miss Nell C. | Wolfe gave q very amusing mOnologuc ! called Taking the Elevator" and re- 1 sponded to an encore with an Irish dialect selection The hostesses were ! Mrs. w. $. Pickrcll and Miss Fannie 1 Peck.
 1 The excerpts from Miss Lewis paper
 follow:
 |, Who is responsible for the health ! of the family? l have put this ques-
 ton to the representative physicians
 of town. Their answers are, of course. ! from as many view points as there | are physicians But the majority lay ! emphasis in the same place. The bur 1 den of the responsibility of the health
 or the family is, you will at once con-
 cede. the woman's. or the mothers. 1 The most radical answer l got to this i question Was that the school system
 was to blame for much of the impaired | health and even death of the children. ! And our minds seem to be confined ! to the children when we say family. | although we of course know they are ] only d part. This doctor says the | physically weak have the same re- ! quirements to meet. the same pre- 1 scribcd course to follow that the phy sically strong have and are pushed | forward with the same power while
 they have unequal resistance to meet
 this: the result of this system is he
 says. a rich harvest for doctor and
 undertaken. This much from an older. 1 much respected physician whose opin-
 ion none would dispute. He shook his
 head sadly and said he didn't know
 the remedy. This is the problem for | women to solve. for it affects that | which lies nearest their hearts.
 Tt Is an undisputabe fact that wo-
 mans sphere is the home The ignor- l ant and learned. the mature and i'm
 mature will give this answer and give
 as their answer that it is natural
 hence. undisputabIe. It is so arranged | in the scheme of things one great
 trouble. though. is that women are not
 fitted for their tremendous tasks. They
 are more often unfittcd for it. The
 most preparation the average girl has 1 is a few years in boarding school 1 where she learns to consume many l boxes of Huylers. ruinuus to the di- I
 small talk-together with an incon-
 sequential smattering of a dead lan- guage and the doings of Egyptians who
 have been mummics for hundreds of years. And these things are as far | from her crying needs as the moan.
 A girl should be as strenuously pre- 1 pared for her life work as such q large | responsibility demands. Can you not
 picture many q painful experience of
 your own that might have been spared l if you only had been educated for your | preordained vocation. Picture man
 thrown into the profession of study | ing law with few music lessons and 1 dancing lessons as preparation. The | lnadequacy of woman's preparation is | ghastly. It is this that makes her re- l spOnsible for so much that she really ! is not responsible for because of this
 awful crime of ignorance This lack 1 of Knowledge. this ignorance is one of l the greatest causes of i'll health This ! should mean that the oncoming gen. | eration will have more adequate prep aration as atonement for our sins of | ignorance
 1 Now if q mother or a women is re- 1 spOnsiblc for the health of the family.
 how is she to keep it? By guarding
 her citadel from the lurking enemy ready to spring across the moat. It
 is so much more intelligent to keep
 well than it is to fight for lost health. And it is so much more economical
 of time. of money. Of effort. which | should be used for service to the world for its advancement and growth, | Thinkers, both along scientific and re- | ligious lines, are bending their energies 1 toward making health a simple thing. Sick or unhealthy thoughts are as det- rimental to the body's yigor as a sick body is detrimental to the mental vigor
 Tn considering the health of the family. the ones health that should
 be first is the mothers This is true first because it is self respecting. and
 secondly, because it will reflect itself
 on her whole family. She should be
 robust if. she is trying to bring chil-
 dren into the world and guide them
 after they are here. I have implicit
 faith in the possibilities of health. Not
 that l have not seen unsuccessful at
 tempts in fighting disease. but I have seen such marvellous triumphs over disease and physical incapablity that l would have the courage to begin a fight against most things. I am con-
 vinced also through observation that in the religion of health for women certain requirements are necessary in the creed-should be observed strictly. These are that she resolve to be well
 Tl MI