Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1911-11-02
0oNml0M 6I AcARJ0n PUB. CO.

KN MOlWW rant Mortality at Baltimore, last
MMMQVM November. In corner of the
fTMM room was an electric light,
MNN)M cased In a red bulb Six times
MHlMNlM minute-7,640 times a day-the
%ENXfN light went OUT and, every time
G. Il the light faded from the bulb
somewhere in the world, the light
faded from mothers eyes, So fast do our chill
dren die
Sometimes they die faster They died faster
last summer If babies kept diaries, last summer
would go down In the annals of the survivors
as the "black summer of 1910" In the single
city of New York, 1878 died in single week.
Every little poor street had its little white hearse
Worse still, durin gthe course of the summer,
5000 children died that ought to have lived that
is to say, they died from preventable causes
Children die from two kinds of causes; those
that are preventable and those that are not. This
is news. Your grandmother and, possibly, your
mother believed that every child that died could
not have been saved. Everybody thought So
Preventable causes of deaths were not recognized
1t was taken as matter of course that women
should bear twice many children as were re.
qured to maintain the population, because half
of them were bound to die
We still let half of the children die but we
kno better We know they need not die We
know they were born to live. We know that
they do not have chance to live. We have even
exploded the old superstition that the children OF
the physically weak must of necessity be physical
ly weak. We now know that the children of the
physically weak born almost as strong as
the child of the strongest
Every intelligent physician knows this
statement to be true However let
some eminent physician stand for it. %
Caleb w. Saleeby, of the most emf ~
nent physicians in England; is such an =
an authority. Read what he says on the | Il
subject in "Parenthood and Race Gull M
ture" "
Most of the babies born in the cums
are splendid little specimens of humanity-so far
as physique is concerned-bearing no marks of
degeneration to correspond with the deterioration
OF their parents In a word hereditorv works
so that each generation gets a fresh
start"
In another part of the same book Dr. Saleeby
estimated that the number of children who are
born so weak that they have little chance for
life does not exceed ten per cent: and he attri-
buted the weakness of these to the effects of aIco-
hol and certain impolite diseases upon one or
both of their parents.
Having now some fundamental facts that meet
with general acceptance among the enlightened
we may proceed to seek an answer to the cues
ton, why are children permitted to die from
preVentable causes and what are those prevent
able causes?"
We need not go far. Millions of children that
are born strong enough to live under favorable
circumstances killed by their mothers The
rest that die from preventable causes are killed
by the community-by you and by me, If we help
to keep things as they are, and by everybody
else who helps to keep things as they are
We will first consider the mothers who kill
their children Every mother kills or tends to
kill her children who does not take the trouble
to inform herself concerning the proper methods
of childrearing. 1t is not that such mothers
are lazy. 1t is not that they are Indifferent to
their children's welfare. They are simply ig-
nOrant Some of them steamed N
Some Of them are half-steeped. But they are all
ignorant They don't know that flies, by carrying
the germs of diseases, kill more children than all
the elephants, tigers lions, automobiles and street
cars in the world. Therefore, flies are considered
mere Inconvenience. They are regarded as I'M
ornamental in the SOUP but as not detrimental to
the health They swarm in the Kitchen the
pantry and the dining room, painstakingly deposit
ing their filth upon every particle of food that the
family, including the children eat Some OF this
filth Is not deadly; some of 1t is. But no such
ignorant mother ever connects in her mind the
going of her baby with the coming of the flies.
Nor does any such ignorant mother have any
conception of the care with which she should
feed. not only her baby, but her half-grown chill
dren. If she doesn't nurse her baby she doesn't
realize that any milk she is likely to find for
sale is more likely to be poison than food Nor,
does she realize that such milk will be precisely
as poisonous for her baby after 1t has been
Wedn6u. SuCQ mOJn6TS usually Duy Ilelr mix
from the nearest grocery store. The number OF
bacteria in milk, when it exceeds 100000 to the
cubic centimeter, makes the milk unfit for use.
Yet, some analyses of New York store milk, the
other day, showed bacteria as high as 38,000,000.
What wonder that every summer is "back sum-
mer" for the babies of New Yorks poor?
In many other ways, the ignorant mother kills
her children with the food she gives them. Many
a baby six months old is nibbling crackers,
bananas and pickles, while putting in the rest OF
its time at an "all-day sucker" stick of candy.
Mothers who want their children to live should
know that the premature giving Of any kind OF
solid food to baby is exceedingly dangerous
that after child is weaned 1t should be given
solid food only in accordance with the instruc-
lions Of an intelligent physician; that meat and
fruit Except orange juice) are like so much
poison, If they do not produce death
quickly as strychnine would; and that all during
childhood the food should be simple with cereals,
milk and vegetables basis and a little meat
not oftener than week.
Rut as a child killer the cOolmunftv exceeds