The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-12
FRENCH SCIENTIST
 WOULD EDUCATE
 FUTURE MOTHERS
Claims 'War Babies" Are Healthy Because of Care Taken Before and
 After Birth

Paris, October 5.-(Correspondence of
 the Associated Press. )-"French families
 could be as large as those of any coun-
 try, not excepting Germany said Prof.
 A. Pinard of the French Academy of
 Mo dicine in an interview with the Asso-
 ciated Press.
 Prof. Pinard who has devoted the past
 two years to the care of war babies"
 is one of Frances most eminent phy-
 sicians and, perhaps, the best authority
 on the physiology of repopulation. He declares that the trouble with the birth
 rate of France is a voluntary resistance
 with economic reasons at the bottom
 of it.
 The state must get at those reasons,
 he says, and overcome them by appro-
 priate legislation while the individual
 must learn more concerning what makes
 a numerous and physically superior
 population. Eugenics he regards as cer-
 tain to have an enormous influence on
 the future of the human race, while a
 theory of his own that he has named
 Eugennetique, will facilitate the practical
 application of eugenics. He is now ap-
 
 application of his doctrine by obligatory education of the future mother, while she is still a schoolgirl. Puericulture, as he calls it-or moral and physical education combined-he wants taught as curl ently as reading, writing and arith- netic.
 Blind reproduction must disappear" was the professors comment on eu-
 genics "In our country the future
 mother is not from any point of view placed on an equal footing with a thor ol ghbred brood mare.
 "We have laws for the protection of both animals and children after birth
 the child alone lacks protection before
 birth, and the result is such as shown by the statistics of the Baudelocque clinic; out of 10000 children that left the
 clinic alive, 5S97 were prematurely born. :" Legislators look upon my proposition as revolutionary-even immortal I am not afraid of their expectations for l am a Frenchman first, then 'puericul- teur.' To render the fatherland more powerful, to preserve and improve the human species and tighten family ties are ambitious that are moral enough for me, even if they are revolutionary. Never before were there born in Paris
 such strong and handsome babies as during this war; Professor Pinard de- clared They are a striking example of what may be accomplished by better care of mothers and their offspring-the re- suit of spontaneous effort from every direction to do something for France, for the defenders of France, and for the wives and children of the soldiers left at home without protection At the bu- reau of vital statistics upon the decara- ton of the birth of a child every mother was sought out and, if she needed as- sistance, she got it, while mothers were prevailed upon more than ever before to nurse their own children in consequence the war generation will be a rugged one.
 Large families are not found among the thoughtful and prudent Professor Pinard points out as proof that restric- tion of births is the result of reflection. 'They are only among those whose cir cumstances permit them to neglect pru- dence, or among those who do not think,