ANTE-NATAL HYGIENE : DISCUSSION 439 



hygiene of pregnancy which was written by Dr. Hunting- 

 ton, and personally he believed very emphatically in that 

 method. After all, for better or worse the daily papers 

 were the things the people read, and it was a great deal 

 better for them to read articles* about medical subjects like 

 syphilis and the hygiene of pregnancy written by physicians 

 than it was to read medicine advertisements. There was a 

 line which occurred to him by their poet, Rudyard Kipling 

 for he called him equally their poet : 



" You can lighten the curse of Adam when you 

 lighten the curse of Eve." 



In this matter of pregnancy they could lighten the curse 

 of Eve, and whatever they could do in this way was going 

 to be good not only for the mothers, but for the children 

 and for the community at large. 



Dr. TRUBY KING (New Zealand) said he entirely agreed 

 with Dr. Green in regard to instructions being given by 

 leaflet if the term were used in the way he applied it. When 

 small leaflets were scattered about broadcast, with every- 

 thing compressed in a small compass, people did not keep 

 them and pay much attention to them; but with regard to 

 consistent articles appearing week after week in the public 

 newspapers by authorities and such as could be compre- 

 hended by anybody, then he had no doubt as to the enormous 

 benefit. It was one of the main means which they had 

 employed in New Zealand, and he could speak from personal 

 experience of this over a period of five or six years. Almost 

 every woman in the country came to read these articles who 

 was interested in the problem of childhood. If those were 

 the kind of leaflets Dr. Green had referred to, written simply 

 and on lines which the mother could understand, then he 

 had no doubt that they were of immense benefit to the 

 community. As to the school for dealing with people in 

 connection with pregnancy and advising them on the subject, 

 unquestionably it was a most enlightened proposal, and one 

 which could only be attended with the greatest possible 

 benefit to the women. He was glad to hear that something 

 had been so consistently carried out in America. 



Dr. BEATRICE MAC(JREGOR (Wimbledon Mothers' and 

 Babies' Welfare Society) said she would like to say a word 

 on the subject of leaflets, because she thought they could 

 be of great benefit in this way. At Wimbledon she gave 

 personal instruction to mothers, and they sent their health 

 visitors to visit in the homes to try and teach them some 

 lessons week by week. But their memories were short, 

 and they found it was a very useful thing, in addition to 



