Norwich bulletin., 1913-01-04
THE CONSERVATION OF CHILD
 LIFE.

As silently as the feathery snowflake falls to the earth has the year 1913 slipped into our calendar. AS we stand on it's threshold and look back on 1912 | and examine the many strands of &C., tivity woven into it's wool and fiber, our hearts are gladdened to see that the keynote has been the homely old German proverb, "Ich Dien" q servel. Wherever the eye turns it is met with the inspiring sight of many men and women consecrating their lives to the service of humanity. We have heard much of the conservation of our forests; conservation of our water ways; conservation of our hogs and cabbages; but the insurgent note of 1912 was the conservation of child life.
 Strange that 1t has taken all these centuries to recognize that the child is only the father of the mani The child welfare movement. though so young, is growing by leaps and bounds in popularity and is opening many avenues of investigation. Most of our prominent organizations and women's clubs are taking up some branch re- lating to it.
 One of the most important and far reaching is the experiments made by Professor Stockard of Cornell univer sity medical college, of alcohol upon race degeneration, by the means of an- imals. Through these repeated inves- tigations Dr. Stockard has proven that alcohol does readily affect the offspring through parents. Where both parents are addicted to the use of alcoholic child being born a degenerate is dou- bled, as is also the death rate
 France has become so exercised over the demoralizing effects of alcohol that she called upon her women to rise en ma Sse to sign a petition to be present. ed to the chamber of deputies for the curtailing of the selling of alcoholic drinks.
 re +I,a o1,,I, xz,1,,,o,, oP A,,arioc -,-ar, to rise en masse against the use of alcoholic drinks. what a force for the upbuiIding of the human race they would become!
 these great facts in regard to the fatal effect of alcohol upon the health of the child, how puerile much of the study of our clubs really isi Does our study of the truth of Emerson's saying: Civ ilization is but the heightened shadow of the great and good'?
 Only as we nial1e 'Ich dien" the key behind Us the great and good for an inheritance to those who come after us.
 As read of the many connections of unWholesome dishes in the Social Cor nef, cannot help asking the question, Are our women as busy studying the welfare of the child as they are pan dering to an artificial appetite, which lSduS to Oen1Ofd1ZeQ phySlca1 cOnd1- tions? Indigestion unquestionably af- fects the mental condition and leads very often to the whiskey or beer bot tie, so by degrees the judgment of the consumer is unable to decide wisely in his business; and. what is worse, through the accumulated poison in his own system, his children inherit weak ened nervous systems. and are from their birth handicapped in the race for life.
 There can be no doubt that half of the misery among our children is caused by the lack of knowledge with the mothers of scientific needs of motherhood and care of the precious baby life after it is given to them.
 We teach our girls everything but the needfu1 knowledge of how to be- come an intelligent mother and house keeper We leave that to chance.
 The daughter of a friend of mine recently married and the first thing she did was to buy the latest medical books and informed herself upon all those sacred and important functions Of motherhood. notwithstanding she could afford to keep in her house the most competent trained nurse. She mastered the food question and every other question which related to whole some living. As the result. she has a sunny, happy. healthy child that is a joy and blessing to the home and she has never had a. sick day; and. what was more, the child smiled upon It's