i 9 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



to succumb to infantile diseases, a frequent prey to rickets, and almost 

 certain to be backward in teething, walking and talking. Moreover, a 

 physician of wide experience has said that disuse of the mammary gland 

 has a tendency to manifest itself in the next generation when the baby 

 girl in turn becomes a mother, while the reverse is equally true. Im- 

 press upon her the fact that the milk is often slow in coming, and that 

 nearly all mothers can, if they persevere and are in fair health, nurse 

 their babies for at least three months, while a full year is better. Let 

 it be thoroughly understood that bottle-feeding is a grave misfortune 

 if unavoidable and, if avoidable, an unnatural wrong. Let anything 

 and everything which may be found to interfere with this essential 

 function — as social dissipation, overwork and worry, either before or 

 after marriage, — be relinquished in favor of that simplicity of living 

 and wholesome attitude toward life which should restore and preserve 

 a normal American womanhood. 



A Shining Example 



The progressive little state of New Zealand has for some time 

 boasted the lowest rate of infant mortality in the world. It was re- 

 ported in 1912 at 51 per 1,000 births, or less than half the (estimated) 

 rate for the United States as a whole. During the years from 1907 to 

 1912, it is said that the rate in Dunedin, a city of about sixty thousand 

 inhabitants, was reduced 50 per cent, through the activity of a volunteer 

 society called the New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and 

 Children. It is earnestly to be hoped that organizations of women in 

 this country will follow the example and methods of this society, which 

 are described for our benefit in a pamphlet issued by the national Chil- 

 dren's Bureau. Taking a few of our oldest cities and states for pur- 

 poses of comparison, we find that in Connecticut and Massachusetts 

 more than twice as many babies die out of each hundred born; in 

 Ehode Island, three times as many ! In the city of Dunedin, during 

 the past year (1913), only 3.8 died in every hundred; in Los Angeles — 

 one of our very best cities — 9.7; in Pittsburgh, Pa., 15; in Lowell, 

 Mass., 23! 



The New Zealand society, though a private organization, receives 

 the benefit of government aid and influence. Here, as elsewhere, the 

 cooperation of public and private agencies has proved an effective 

 means of social reform. The main features of the program for public 

 health affecting our subject, are: (1) State registration of nurses; (2) 

 registration of midwives ; (3) government maternity hospitals ; (4) su- 

 pervision of infant asylums ; ( 5 ) complete registration of births. 



The society is officered by women and its work is mainly educational. 

 It consists of the instruction of mothers and potential mothers through 

 demonstration lectures, newspaper articles, pamphlets, etc. ; the employ- 



