The Washington times., 1935-01-08
Conditions Aid
Handicapped
Infants
BY DR.. ALLAN ROY DAFOE
Physician to Famous
OuintuDLetS

QuintupletS
If the famous Dionne quin-
tuplets, instead of entering
the world in a Canadian
cabin, had seen fit to be born
on Park Avenue, New York,
Or Lakeshore Drive, Chicago,
or in a home of wealth
located in any other metro
politan center, it is at least
possible that they would not
have lived.
Two reasons would have
operated against their sur
vival- environment and
heredity.
The smoke-saturated, germ
laden air of a great city is not
to be compared to the breath
Of life" which my little girls
have drawn, from the first, in
cool, clean, invigorating Cal.
lander, Ontario. Such an at
mosphere is not vitiated with
Impurities or poisoned with in
fections which the little Dionne
girls, fighting so hard for exis-
tence would have found it i'm.
possible to throw off.
City Noises
Their infinitely delicate nerv.
Gus systems would have been
shell shocked at the start by
the city roar and racket. The
clangor of elevated railroads,
the grinding Of gears and
squawking horns of innumer-
able motors, the pound of feet
ON pavements, the ceaseless
whir of million machines, the
unending flow of human voices
combine in an inferno of per-
petual noise which is a contin-
uouS wear-and-tear on strong
men and women. Such noise
would have drummed the quin-
tuplets to death.
Nor could they have found
In the average home of wealth
the vigorous, unspoiled, clean
bred stock from which the
Dionne babies derived their
superb stamina. Just as water
can rise no higher than it's
source, so the health and vital
1ty of children are conditioned
inevitably by their racial and
family inheritance.
Any woman who wants q
firSt-class baby should pick for
him not only a good father but
q pair of fine grandfathers!
Something more than their
own baby weakness was behind
the hold on life taken by the
tiny, tight-clutching fingers of
Marie, Yvonne, Cecile, Emile
and Nannette. Other hands lent
their strength - the heritage
from generations of dead and
living Dionnes who worked
hard, lived simply, avoided in
diligence or excess.
"Can men gather grapes Of
thOrns or figs of thistles?" asks
Holy Writ.
When parents lament their
children are mot strong" the
family doctor wants to ask:
"Can you expect strong chill
dren, when you and your for.
bears have frittered away, in
luxurious slOth or dissipation,
your own power and endur.
ance?"
The converse of this truth is
one of the lessons to be read
into the scientific fairy tale of
the Dionne babies. They pulled
through against heavy handi.
capS-not only the record-break-
ing number Of births, but their
prematurity.
Good Families
Other children equally hard
to kill" are likewise the prod.
uct Of good families" using
the phrase not in the snobbish
sense but to describe ancestral
physique.
Thousands of mothers on
farms, other thousands who
are the mainstay of simple
homes in small communities,
should derive fresh courage
and reinsurance from the facts
in the case of the quintuplets.
They came to parents who
work hard, have little money,
live in the humblest circum-
Stances-yet produce offspring
to break all records!
1t is not the home Of wealth
which a baby needs for a good
start in life. Give him a
healthy father and mother,
with enough to satisfy his sim.
pie wants and to keep him in
surroundings as natural as pos
sible.
In a city the normal baby
s. can get along very we'll, with
the right maternal care and
medical supervision. If he
should happen to be born
with a silver spoon in his
mouth" that spoon is a super
fluffy, and no good mother
need worry over it's absence.