The Washington herald., 1912-07-28
Public Health Expert Gives Advice
On Care of Infants During Summer
DR.. William Colby Rucke,
Declares Death Rate Is
Thirty-fipe Per Cent
Higher in Summer.

Fifty per cent of the babies born in
this country die before they are one year
old, and the infant mortality rate in
summer is 35 per cent higher than in
winter"
This is the unvarnished statement of
DR.. William Colby Rucker. Assistant
Surgeon General of the Public Health
and Marine Hospital Service, in prefac-
ing list of instructions for the summer
care OF Infants. DR.. Rucker has been
making a special study of the causes of
infant mortality in the United States.
According to DR.. Rucker, the three
primal causes of the high infant death
rate are ignorance, carelessness, and pow
erty, Lamed in order of their impor-
tance-
Health Bureau Alarmed.
IF children were a marketable product
like hogs" said DR.. Rucker, greater
care and intelligence would be taken in
their upbringing.''
Uncle Sans health department has be-
come seriously alarmed over the in
creased death rate among infants. and is
about to institute an elaborate series OF
experimental feeding to determine, IL pos
sible, upon some general formula for in
FAINT feeding in summer. At the last
meeting of the advisory board of the
Service the leading scientists of America
discussed the growing menace and de-
cided upon an experimental course in
infant feeding.
The milk which will be used in the tests
viii be taken from special herd of reg
istered. tuberculin-tested cows owned by
the Department of Agriculture. Children
will be selected of varying ages, but all
under one year, and will be given the
benefits of the free feeding at milk dis
pensaries In this city. The children will
be watched by physicians in charge of
the work. and their mothers will be in
structed as to their proper care. The
babies will be weighed at frequent inter-
walls as one means of determining the
effect of the treatment.
Board to watch Results.
This work will be carefully observed by
the advisory board of the service. includ-
ing such savants as Prof. Simon F'lex-
ner, of the Rockefeller Institute for
Medical Research: Prof. william H.
WEIGH. Johns Hopkins University: Prof
Victor c. Baughan. University of Michi-
gan; Prof William p. Sedgewick, Massa-
chusetts Institute Of Technology, and
Prof Frank W. Westbrook, University
Of Minnesota.
Research and experiments by officers of
the PUBIC Health Service nave SHOWN
that infant mortality in summer is
largely preventable by the exercise of
three nonexpensive essentials, viz, COM
mon sense, Ice box, and pure milk. The
most important of these is the first: the
second may be. constructed at home at
a negligible expense, and the third can
be insured either by the exercise of great
care in selecting the milk supply. or by
the use of pasteurized milk, treated at
home or In a laboratory.
The keynote of rearing healthy chill |
dren is proper feeding" says DR.. Rucker |
''Of all the babies that are born in the
United States 30 per cent die before
they are one year old. In great part, |
this slaughter is preventable To be sure
a certain number are born into the world |
with such weak organisms that they can
not Withstand the struggle for existence
But the bulk of children are born healthy |
and will reach adolescence If a reason |
able degree Of care and intelligence is
used in their rearing.
High Rate In Summer.
THE greatest death rate among in |
fants occurs In summer. The greatest |
cause of infant mortality is bad or |
spoiled food. which is more common in
the not months. During the hot months |
the death rate among infants is FULLY
S5 per cent higher than during the cool |
The natural food for babies under one |
ear of age is that taken from the moth
er'n breast The morfalifv among hroo sf