DR. H. J. GERSTENBERGER'S PAPER 73 



regarding the health and home surroundings of 

 children receiving the milk could be made. This 

 was the extent of the work until 1906, when the 

 writer, after having had in 1905 the privilege to work 

 in the newly opened Saeuglingsfuersorgestelle III. of 

 the Schmidt-Gallische Stiftung in Berlin with the 

 physician in charge, now Professor Salge of Stras- 

 burg, was asked by Dr. J. H. Lowman, the physician 

 first among those of Cleveland interested in the 

 prevention of disease by social improvement and 

 education of the public, to attempt an improvement 

 of the infant mortality work in Cleveland. He pointed 

 out the existence of the Milk Fund Association and 

 also that of the Visiting Nurse Association, an organi- 

 zation sending nurses into the homes of the sick and 

 needy, and furthermore, the possibility of effecting 

 a co-operation that might enable the establishment 

 of an institution like the one the writer had described 

 to him, which combined medical examination, super- 

 vision and directing of the work, nursing care and 

 supervision, especially in the homes, together with the 

 simple milk-station. This suggested co-operation 

 was then effected, and on July 5, 1906, the Infants' 

 Clinic of the Milk Fund Association and the Visiting 

 Nurse Association was opened. In this co-operative 

 plan the Milk I 7 und Association supplied the milk, 

 both in bulk and in modified form, the Visiting Nurse 

 Association the nurse to aid the physician in the 

 clinic and to control and educate the mothers in the 

 home, and Dr. J. J. Thomas and the writer gave their 

 medical service. 



This clinic was placed in the poorest, most popu- 

 lated part of the city, but in order to emphasize the 

 great need of such work, patients from all parts of 

 the city provided that they were financially unable 

 to supply their own physician were admitted. The 

 attendance grew rapidly, and so it became evident to 

 all medical and lay people who had become intensely 



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