346 MEDICAL SECTION 



disease and deformity before birth ; it is also the little- 

 developed, little-thought-on matter of ante-natal treat- 

 ment. 



Ante -natal Hygiene and Infantile Mortality. 



At the National Conference on Infantile Mortality 

 which met here in 1906 I had the opportunity of 

 dealing with the ante-natal causes of that mortality, 

 and I shall not now endeavour to go over again the 

 ground then covered, but shall content myself with 

 the passing allusion to it which I have just made. 



Ante -natal Life. 



Ante- natal life occupies the period of nine months 

 or so before birth. During seven of these months 

 (from the third to the ninth inclusive) the unborn 

 infant is growing rapidly in size and weight, is finding 

 its nourishment in the mother through the important 

 connecting organ called the placenta or afterbirth, is 

 being prepared in every sense for the calls which are 

 to be made on it immediately after birth, and is being- 

 fitted, in a word, for its post-natal existence of 

 possibly seventy years ; at the same time the infant 

 has already in itself the power and the qualities of 

 life which is distinct from its mother's, for it is in n< 

 way a simple replica of its mother, nor is it a minia- 

 ture of its father, nor, for that matter, is it even 

 blend of them both, being rather a composite phot< 

 graph, so to say, of many ancestors with the possibili- 

 ties of being made better or sadly marred in th< 

 developing or printing (to use the language 

 photography without, of course, accepting the liten 

 meaning thereof). 



But there are two earlier months, the first an< 

 second of the nine, which come within the scope 

 the ante-natal life of the infant. These constitute 

 the embryonic time, and follow immediately upon coi 

 ception ; during these weeks the new being is fashion< 



