OVERSEAS GREETINGS 39 



extension of the ideals of the English-speaking peoples 

 throughout Europe. In America we have been engaged 

 in the solution of economic problems; social and spiritual 

 problems have also received attention to an increasing- 

 degree. One of these has been the protection of infant 

 life. It is a great work, and, as has been our custom, we 

 turn to older countries which have had experience in the 

 handling of such problems. We in America are already 

 indebted to this country, whose guests we are, for pre- 

 cedents in respect to organized government and public 

 health administration. I trust that as a result of this Con- 

 ference we shall obtain new ideas, and that we shall go 

 back and be able to put them into effect. I trust that the 

 objects of this Conference will be accomplished and that 

 our stay together will be profitable and pleasant. 



Surgeon-General Sir CHARLES P. LUKIS (Director- 

 General of the Indian Medical Service) : Allow me on 

 behalf of my fellow delegates from the Government of 

 India to say what great pleasure it gives us to have an 

 opportunity of being present at this very important Con- 

 ference. Of recent years the subject of infant mortality 

 has engaged the serious attention of the Government of 

 India, but no one unacquainted with life in that country 

 can have any idea of the difficulties which there beset the 

 path of the sanitary reformer. The illiteracy of the 

 majority of the population 90 per cent, of whom live a 

 life of fatalism their innate dislike to any innovation, their 

 ignorance and their disregard of even the most elementary 

 rules of domestic hygiene, all combine to build up an almost 

 insurmountable barrier in the path of rapid progress in 

 sanitary reform. The Government of India recognize these 

 difficulties and have, on my advice, sent three delegates to 

 this Conference myself to study the administrative aspects 

 of the case; Colonel Green, Professor of Midwifery at the 

 Calcutta Medical College, with the point of view of a 

 gynaecologist; and Major F. H. G. Hutchinson, Deputy 

 Sanitary Commissioner at Poonah, to study hygienic and 

 sanitary problems. You will see that the Government of 

 India has taken a great interest in this movement, and if 

 we do not take any large part in your discussions I hope 

 you will realize that this is not from want of interest, 

 it is merely from the fact that we come here to obtain 

 information rather than to impart it. 



The CHAIRMAN : I am sure that we shall give our 

 warmest sympathy to our brethren in India in the gigantic 

 rtask that is before them. 



Dr. CHARLES A, HODGETTS (Medical Adviser to the 



