34 The Bulletin. 



possible. The closet should be on a slant below the house and well, where the 

 drainage will fall away from the house to prevent polluting the soil. If germs 

 are to be kept from spreading, it is absolutely necessary that the closet be closed 

 in to keep out flics, chickens and bogs. Probably the best and cheapest method 

 of doing this is the use of the wire screen in the back and over the seat. This 

 will give sunshine and a free current of air, and will prevent access of chickens 

 and flies. The pail system is a. good one, and when one is removed a clean one 

 should be left in place of it. The pail should be removed from the front by 

 making the top of the seat on hinges, or from the back by making a swinging 

 door o'f wire. Dry earth should be packed around the other sides of the piivy. 

 Lime, dry earth, or wood ashes should be used freely in the closet. Wood ashes 

 and dry earth are good because the lye helps to kill the germs and both prevent 

 the breeding of flies, in case the lid should be left open and they find access to 

 the stools. 



No discharge from the closet .should ever be used as fertilizer, but should be 

 hauled away and buried or burned. 



If we can arouse the interest and enthusiasm of the women in this fight for 

 better sanitation, the improvement in health and prosperity will be so great 

 that we shall have just cause to be proud of the Old North State. Why should 

 the women of the State not take the lead in this matter of sanitation? 



THE IMPORTANCE OF A PROPERLY SELECTED DIET FOR THE 



YOUNG CHILD. 



MRS. F. L. STEVENS. 



"I am often led to the conclusion," said a prominent physician, "that one of 

 the most constant sources of infant mortality is the imbecile pride, so common 

 among parents of both high and low degree, in the capacity of their children to 

 eat anything on the table, just as they do themselves. In our every-day practice 

 we physicians meet with this as the cause of at least one-half the illness among 

 little children." 



It is frequently the custom among parents to think that what is provided for 

 themselves in the" way of food may be given without risk, to the child. The usual 

 haphazard method of feeding children is founded upon ignorance. These parents 

 do not understand that the food which an adult can receive and assimilate does 

 harm to the tender digestive organs of a young child. 



Recently, at one of our women's institutes, I discovered a mother oflfering an 

 unripe apple to her baby, a pale, delicate mite of possibly two and one-half years. 

 I suggested that a child so young had trouble digesting raw fruit, even when 

 thoroughly ripe. Very cheerfully the mother took the apple away from the 

 baby, at the same time rewarding me with a bright smile and a word of appre- 

 ciation for my interest. When next my attention was directed to this little group 

 the baby was contentedly munching a pickle. Such carelessness and ignorance 

 at this period of a child's life is quickly followed by pernicious results. The great 

 need of the mothers of today is a knowledge of the processes of digestion and the 

 necessity for the selection of foods that are suitable for infants and growing 

 children. 



Following infancy comes the more difficult period of childhood, although not 

 usually considered so, wh'en nutriment must be applied to repair the constant 

 waste caused by the active growth of the child. It frequently happens that a 

 plump, vigorous-looking baby develops into a thin, unhealthy-looking child. It 

 is at this time that a knowledge of the values of various foods and the amounts 

 necessary for various periods should be understood by mothers. No amount of 

 general knowledge will be of service, special study is required. 



Cereals are a necessary food for growing children as they are rich in the con- 

 stituents required for energy and for tissue-building, thus producing fine muscular 

 development. Starch being the predominant constituent of the cereals, the fact 



