

EDUCATION IN INFANT HYGIENE: DISCUSSION 269 



Therefore it seemed to him almost impossible that anyone 

 in New Zealand could draw up a standard which would be 

 a standard they would require in England. Beyond that 

 there were many other conditions which seemed to him also 

 to make alterations necessary in a standard. For instance, 

 there was the amount of sunlight. Sunlight was one of the 

 most important stimulants, and if the metabolism of the 

 infant was low it could not make use of the same amount of 

 food as a child which had a stimulant which promoted its 

 metabolism. Therefore he was opposed to drawing up a 

 standard. It was the drawing up of standards as to which 

 no two authorities could agree that led so many people 

 into error. They seemed to think that a child was a 

 machine and could follow any law laid down for it, but 

 he thought it would be a great mistake for their Society 

 to attempt to draw up such standards. He thought they 

 should rather encourage those who had the control of 

 depots, or consultations, or schools for mothers to exercise 

 their own individual judgment for each individual case. 



Dr. TRUBY KING, in reply, said that when Dr. Donald 

 mentioned that it had been suggested that he might neglect 

 his work in the mental hospital they would understand that 

 he was working nearly the whole of the twenty-four hours 

 of the day, and the assumption was that a man could not 

 carry out all the duties, but as there were several assistants 

 and able colleagues there was no neglect of the asylum 

 work. He understood perfectly that Dr. Donald did not 

 make the allusion in any invidious sense. As to Dr. 

 Dundas's remarks about a weekly column for the Press he 

 thought that must commend itself to everybody. The 

 suggestion was full of common sense, and he could only 

 say that the benefit which had accrued from the consistent 

 editing of the column which went to all the Press in New 

 Zealand had been perfectly obvious. Any of them would 

 be satisfied if they saw the thousands of grateful letters 

 received from parents, not only in New Zealand, but from 

 other places where they had read what had been printed. 

 As to the question of arriving at standard dietaries, and as 

 to what were the standard requirements of infants, he 

 thought a great deal could be done. He did not entirely 

 agree with the remarks made by Dr. Pritchard, although in 

 most things they were in accord. He was asked how it 

 was that one arrived at the standard, and in reply he could 

 say it was easily arrived at. He took the leading observa- 

 tions which had been made, and there were a number which 

 had been made in Germany for instance, with regard to 

 weighing, before and after. They weighed a certain 



