438 



MEDICAL SECTION 



looking at it from her point of view they were looking at 

 the interests of the unborn infant. It seemed to him there 

 were three things which a careful supervision of the 

 pregnant mothers could do. In the first place, such a care- 

 ful supervision could to a large extent prevent the bad 

 results of toxaemias of pregnancy. They knew that to be 

 true, and in doing that they were not only saving infantile 

 lives, but the lives of working mothers who had families to 

 support and who were the potential mothers of other 

 children. The second thing he thought they could do was 

 to treat the definite diseases of the mother, and the most 

 prominent amongst these he should place syphilis. There 

 had been some difference of opinion in the morning session 

 as to how important syphilis was as a cause of infantile 

 mortality. Without citing figures he could cite a certain 

 case of a mother aged 40, pregnant for the seventh time, 

 and who had had six premature births due to syphilis. She 

 was very anxious to have a living child, and she came to 

 their clinic. They found that the woman had had syphilis, 

 and she was carefully treated, and gave birth to a 9 Ib. baby 

 at full term. That was one instance of a great many others 

 in his mind which he could give. Thirdly and most im- 

 portant was the work they could do in the education of the 

 mothers and of the community. That was done partly by 

 the doctor in the clinic, who laid down the law categorically 

 as to what the mother should do, and still more was it done 

 by the visiting nurse, who went round to the houses and 

 saw that the patients followed the instructions they received. 

 What was best for t'he patient came under certain definite 

 heads of fresh air, clothing, diet and let him remind them 

 that diet was a tremendous item. In his country there were 

 a great many more patients who ate too much or who ate 

 unwisely than there were patients who were underfed. 

 When there were patients underfed he believed, from his 

 experience, that the reason was almost always because there 

 was a man in the household who was drinking away the 

 money. There was food enough for everybody, and money 

 enough to buy it, if it were not spent in some other way. 

 Personally, he believed that the problem of alcohol in his 

 country and in many others was vastly more important than 

 any other thing they had to deal with so far as securing 

 the well-being of the future generation was concerned. 

 Education, then, with regard to fresh air, clothing, diet and 

 exercise could be carried out by the visiting nurses in the 

 homes and by the hospital nurses. They were believers in 

 the leaflet method of disseminating information. They had 

 a column in one of their daily papers with regard to the 



