6 7 8 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



more fruitful than that which is devoting thought and action to the safeguarding 

 of the future by the protection of Motherhood and Childhood in the present. 

 While social reformers are discussing principles and practices for reconstruction 

 and politicians are devising Bills to circumvent the working of natural laws, and 

 idealists of every school are promulgating doctrines full of enticing words, the 

 Carnegie Trust of the United Kingdom have quietly provided ways and means 

 whereby it has been possible to procure reliable data and collect serviceable 

 information which will go far to assist in the development of methods and 

 measures for the furtherance of Maternity and Child Welfare. The volumes of 

 the Reports on the Physical Welfare of Mothers and Children in the United 

 Kingdom and Ireland issued by the Carnegie Trust form a monumental work 

 which will be of permanent value and must assist greatly in the establishment of 

 scientifically guided statutes and schemes and systems of supervision, instruction, 

 and general welfare. 



Mr. A. L. Hetherington, the secretary of the Trust, in the prefatory note to 

 these volumes indicates that the Carnegie Trustees have provided for their issue 

 because they are convinced that the existing risk of infant mortality and the need 

 for a health supervision of children from infancy to the age of admission to school 

 are among " the most important questions of the present day relating to the well- 

 being of the people." Dr. E. W. Hope, in the introduction to the first volume 

 of the series, explains that the work has grown out of the following resolution of 

 instruction, adopted by the Carnegie Trustees early in 1916 : 



"To investigate and report upon the existing provision for promoting the 

 Physical Welfare of Mothers and Children, with special reference to the existing 

 provision of Schools for Mothers, Health Houses, etc., the legislation that exists 

 for governing the administration of such centres, and the extent to which 

 municipal authorities have availed themselves of the powers they possess in the 

 matter. Further, to suggest whether any, and if so what, steps might be taken 

 by the Trustees to encourage the provision of such centres and under what 

 conditions." 



The work, so far as it has been completed, is a notable compliance with the 

 terms of the reference. But the work, epoch making and marking though it may 

 well be, is but the beginning, if we mistake not, of a far-reaching educational 

 endeavour the benefits of which will be seen in the years of the coming genera- 

 tions. Sir Arthur Newsholme, Chief Medical Officer of the Local Government 

 Board, in his suggestive introduction to the first volume declares, "To my mind 

 the chief burden of the reports is the immediate need for further national effort 

 to reduce sickness and mortality among infants before birth and in the first 

 month after live birth." We congratulate the Carnegie Trustees on their states- 

 manlike action in arranging for the preparation and publication of these thought- 

 stirring and effort-guiding volumes ; and we also warmly congratulate all those 

 who have participated in the production of so patriotic an experiment. The 

 volumes should be studied in their entirety by all medical officers of health, school 

 medical officers, responsible workers in connection with all forms of Maternity 

 and Child Welfare Centres, as well as by those who are seeking to secure 

 betterment for the future generations of Britishers. We trust means will be taken 

 to place a set of the complete work in every library in the country, where it may 

 be available for reference by all earnest seekers for better things. 



It is difficult in the limited space allotted to this notice to give any adequate 

 idea of the ground covered. We can only refer to some few of the more con- 

 spicuous features. Dr. E. W. Hope, in the first fifty-six pages of Vol. I., 



