372 MEDICAL SECTION 



Bartholomew's Hospital every Thursday morning, when the 

 mothers came to get their letters, and without any difficulty 

 at all she used to get a long list of expectant mothers. But 

 the fact was that the officials had not the time to follow up 

 these cases and visit them, and therefore an organized body 

 of workers was needed. They wanted volunteers to work 

 amongst these expectant mothers. Then they had the City 

 of London Lying-in Hospital in their area, and through the 

 officials there they obtained a list of expectant mothers. On 

 the other side of the borough they had the Royal Free 

 Hospital, and that hospital was doing work amongst 

 expectant mothers in so far as it had a dinner centre, and 

 the mothers who went to the hospital could be sent on for 

 free or paying dinners if necessary. But the feeding of the 

 expectant mothers was only one part of the work, and there 

 was a great deal of other work to be done. They had also 

 an ideal landlord in their borough, who provided nurses to 

 visit his tenants, and they visited them continuously when- 

 ever it was necessary, and this landlord had also started a 

 Provident Club for expectant mothers for the provision of 

 baby clothes and the cradle. There was an enormous field 

 of work and no difficulty in the London boroughs in getting 

 hold of the expectant mothers if only the voluntary workers 

 would co-operate. They had no difficulty in getting hold 

 of the material if only they could get workers with the time 

 to work amongst the women who really needed advice. 

 Anyone who investigated the deaths could not fail to see 

 that a great deal could be done. She did not agree with 

 what Sir George Newman said the previous day, that they 

 would not expect the mortality figures to be much lower, 

 for she was convinced that it could be brought very much 

 lower. 



Dr. TRUBY KING (New Zealand) said he had followed the 

 papers with the deepest interest, and especially that of Mrs. 

 Fowles on practical work amongst expectant mothers, and 

 the remarks which had been made by other speakers with 

 regard to this most important aspect of the question of the 

 safeguarding of the mother and child. One was satisfied, 

 of course, that all these various agencies which were work- 

 ing with a common object and on very similar lines were 

 all doing a great deal towards the solution of the problem 

 which they all of them had at heart. But there was one 

 point which seemed to him to be of supreme importance 

 which had not been specially touched upon, and which in 

 their experience in New Zealand was an even more difficult 

 matter than the procuring of suitable food for expectant 

 mothers. He quite understood that those speaking had 



