t>R. C. PAGET LAPAGE'S PAPER 249 



attend well-directed effort by schools for mothers are 

 now clearly established, but to my mind it would be a 

 great advantage if these schools could be extended in 

 scope so that their influence could reach mothers in 

 higher social scales as well. There is much need for 

 instruction to mothers of all classes. A great deal 



o 



can be learnt about infant hygiene by attending as 

 voluntary helpers at the existing schools, but only a 

 few of the women who really need instruction have 

 either the time or the strength or the aptitude for 

 such work. 



Something is being done by training colleges. At 

 the Princess Christian Training College in Manchester 

 the period of instruction extends over eight months 

 and is practical in nature : the pupils have the entire 

 care of infants and young children under the super- 

 vision of trained instructors. The majority of the 

 pupils intend to use the knowledge they have obtained 

 as a means of earning their living, and for them the 

 period of training is, perhaps, too short ; but, for 

 women who wish to obtain a knowledge of infant 

 hygiene, there is no reason why a shorter period 

 of training should not be sufficient to teach the 

 essential points in caring for a baby. One dis- 

 advantage of these training colleges is that they 

 deal only with artificially-fed infants. 



The teaching of girls in the elementary schools 

 has been very successful in Manchester, and there 

 is no doubt that a good grounding in the elementary 

 principles of infant hygiene will be of great value to 

 these girls in later life ; but there should be further 

 and more practical training if possible. We all know 

 how hard it is to study a subject efficiently without 

 practical work and how much a baby differs from 

 a model ; it is therefore necessary that we should 

 have some scheme by which girls or women who 

 are anxious to learn infant hygiene can obtain practical 

 experience by actually looking after a baby. 



17 



