430 MEDICAL SECTION 



the leading maternity hospitals in New Zealand had, he 

 thought, an important bearing on what had been said. It 

 was there found that where mothers were unable to nurture 

 their offspring, on looking back on the records it was dis- 

 covered that in these cases almost without exception the 

 mothers had been sufferers from albuminuria. In other 

 words, it not only caused certain risks with regard to their 

 lives, but it also manifested itself in this most important 

 direction, that it limited the ability of the mothers to nourish 

 their offspring. Of course, they knew this must be the 

 case. Anything which interfered with nutrition in this way 

 was liable to render the mother unable to suckle her child. 

 It was another direction in which education, whether arrived 

 at by notification or otherwise, would greatly redound to 

 the benefit of the mother and child. He might say that he 

 was speaking of a country where they had not the sub- 

 merged conditions in the same way as they had in Great 

 Britain, and therefore advice had to be sought in a voluntary 

 way, but still they found there was a growing appreciation 

 and a growing tendency on the part of expectant mothers 

 to come forward in order to gain the information which 

 was so important. He had received a letter since coming 

 to that Conference from one of their branches which read : 

 " Greatly increased number of expectant mothers now 

 consult the Plunkett nurses and send for the Society's pub- 

 lications, before the arrival of their babies/' He was quite 

 sure that Dr. Kerr would not suggest that the seeking of 

 advice upon rational lines or the provision of such advice 

 would not be beneficial. He largely agreed with Dr. Kerr 

 with regard to the distribution of small leaflets which had 

 a few instructions on them not as a rule greatly impressing 

 people. As to the mother objecting, he quite agreed with 

 Dr. Kerr that if the matter were properly and reasonably 

 explained to the mothers, and if they were brought to 

 realize that the matter was entirely in their own benefit, 

 any opposition which might be raised in the first in- 

 stance would soon be allayed, and that they would soon 

 come to recognize what an enormous benefit had been con- 

 ferred upon them and that it was a provision entirely in 

 their own interests. If one could get a general knowledge 

 of the cases where there was pregnancy it would be one 

 of the greatest of all possible measures of safeguarding the 

 child from every possible point of view, because it would 

 not only obviate the dangers, but it would very greatly 

 increase the physiological capacity of the mother to provide 

 a natural food for her offspring, which after all stood at the 

 head of all consideration in this direction. If it could come 



