The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-01-09
A TRAVELLING DIsPENstRY
enc IL t, 2 Features q Ci.iIa H'e'fsr
HoIlI in Czec'.osIovaIS,a.

enc Jf I. 2 Feature q Gill! Wei ire
NoIlI in Czec'.osIov.,lS,a.
\ feature Of the child welfare unit
which the Lady NurieI Paget Mission
in Czcchoslovakia is operating in con
junction with the league of Red Cross
societies is the automobile clinic which
travels through the country. This clinic
or travelling diSpcnsary began its work
last May and in three months covered
over 5000 miles. serving eleven villages,
where about 1000 children have been
treated.
The staff is kept as small as possible
and consists Of one Czechcoslavak and
two English sisters. n Slovak interpreter,
and the driver. The clinic IS held by the
local doctor. or, in cases where there
is meme, by the doctor from the nearest
village
DIR. r. p. Stewart of the league Of
Red Cross societies, who is in charge
of the infant welfare plan of the Paget
mission. thus describes the scenes enacted
upon the arrival Of the clinic at a village 4:
AT last we near the village where the
clinic is to be held. We pass on all sides
mothers in their picturesque Slovakian
costumes. with their babies on their
backs. and leading one or two older chill
dren by the hand. We reach the school
room where the clinic is usually held. and
find many more weary mothers waiting
round it. besides the universal bcggars
and gypsies who always collect mt any
function.
The mothers, who have tramped
many miles over hills, receive the lOrry
with a quiet, patient smile of welcome.
Then the unloading begins. The school
room is transformed as quickly as pOSsi-
bic into a waiting and weighing room. and
a doctors room and dispensary, by means
of the screens. tables. medicine trays.
oil nd hn 'bp
mothers are ranged sitting at long tables,
with baskets hanging from the tables in
front of them. and soon their babies,
wrapped up like little mummes in their
mattresses and many ribbons, are slowly
mswathed on the tables, the clothes
going into the respective baskets, and 50
kept apart.
The babies. one by one are then car
ried kicking and struggling after their
long continent. to the weighing machine.
They enjoy the release, for they have
frequently been carried fifteen miles on
their mothers backs and have not been
uuwrapped for Six hours After being
weighed. they are carried into the doctor's
room with their weight charts, and the
doctor orders them what he wishes in
! the way of milk or medicine. and has a
talk with each mother. Then they are
taken back to undergo the same process
of mummyication again. and their long
pilgrimage over the hills starts once
more
The travelling clinic accomplishes a
two-fold task. 1t undertakes immediate
relief work, which is of inestimable value
as it frequently goes to villages which are
many miles away from the nearest doc
tor or chemist and where the inhabitants
when seriously III. generally die fer want
of proper care. But even more important
is the work of instruction carried. OF
by this diSpensary on wheels. Within
three months more than 1000 mothers
We're taught how to wash aud feed theiI
infants. and how to nurse them when
sick. 1t is difficult to overestimate the
value Of this instruction in a country
where ideas on these subjects were less
than rudimentaTy.