A XT I .-NATAL HYGIENE. DISCUSSION 37'J 



complicated by syphilis. In those cases the result was very 

 often most serious, but they had the comfort a mournful 

 comfort, no doubt that the child would probably die. They 

 found that was a very frequent result in cases which went 

 blind in a short time afterwards the child died. A speaker 

 also expressed the opinion that in cases of abortion, per- 

 haps, they had often to congratulate themselves that abor- 

 tion had occurred, because otherwise children would be 

 born maimed by this disease. That simply brought out 

 what he wanted to emphasize, which was the importance 

 of dealing with the question of syphilis and the importance 

 of pre-natal treatment. 



Dr. BEATRICE MACGREGOR (Wimbledon Mothers' and 

 Babies' Welfare Society) said the fact that they did not 

 really know whether abortions or stillbirths were beneficial 

 or not was one which made them want to have a Com- 

 mission to inquire into the whole subject, and if possible to 

 have a Bill for the Registration of Stillbirths. There was 

 great ignorance on the subject, but the evidence was all 

 in favour of the necessity of knowing a great deal more 

 about these things. It was to be hoped they would pass 

 a firm resolution in favour of the registration of stillbirths. 

 One lady had suggested that they might get over their 

 financial difficulties by appealing to the Boards of Guardians. 

 It would be a great misfortune, she thought, if the work of 

 this sort was put under the Poor Law. It was a matter 

 of public health and it ought to be the borough councils 

 and such like bodies who should supply the funds as they 

 did in Wimbledon. They ran a Welcome in Wimbledon 

 and they believed they did a great deal of good, but the 

 difficulty was to touch all classes of the community. It 

 was an extraordinarily difficult thing unless they got lists 

 of mothers from hospitals, of expectant mothers, and this 

 would not be possible in the country. The great difficulty 

 was to get into contact with every woman as they would 

 like to. The people they touched were the poor people 

 who had aspirations, but they wished to create aspirations 

 in people who had not got them now and who would not 

 trouble to come to them. There were also a number of 

 people above that class the wives of the respectable 

 artisans who did not care to be seen going to these sort 

 of places at all. That was a class very much in need of 

 instruction, but it was not in the least reached by their 

 work. As to the question of exercise, it all depended, of 

 course, on what the exercise was. There was nothing 

 better for a woman than the ordinary duties of the household, 

 and she had nothing to say against .the ordinary duties of a 



