264 MEDICAL SECTION 



at the end of the day from the specified allowance. 

 I need not say that records made on these lines are very 

 illuminating and have a high practical scientific value. 



In the case of ailing nurslings the babies are 

 regularly weighed before and after each suckling, to 

 ascertain precisely what supplementary amount to 

 give. Patent foods are not used. Medicine is rarely 

 found to be necessary. Washing out of stomach and 

 bowels, irrigation, massage for constipation, &c., are 

 systematically taught and used as needed. 



Babies who enter the institution using dummies or 

 habituated to night feeding, or feeding more often than 

 every three hours, are quickly broken of these habits. 



THE PLUNKET NURSES. 



Certificated hospital nurses who have undergone 

 training- in the institution, followed by an outside 

 course among the community, are eligible for examina- 

 tion at the end of from three to six months, with a 

 view to appointment as " Plunket Nurses," the name 

 given to our nurses owing to the devoted part played 

 by Lady Plunket and our late Governor, Lord 

 Plunket, who did everything in their power while in 

 New Zealand to encourage, support and build up the 

 Society. Indeed, the original branches in the North 

 Island were formed and organized by Lady Plunket 

 herself, and her untiring enthusiasm and personal, 

 practical teaching were great factors in the success of 

 the Society's health mission throughout the Dominion. 



In the part of their course outside the institution 

 the nurses are taught how to help mothers of all 

 classes tactfully in their own homes. They learn to 

 apprehend rapidly the best place for the baby's bed ; 

 the best method of ventilating any room with the 

 means at hand ; where to keep, and the best way to 

 safeguard, milk in each of the homes ; and the 

 numberless simple practical points in household 

 arrangement and management which, added together, 



