July 12, 191 7] 



NATURE 



389 



welfare centres, are discussed, as are also the evil 

 results of the artificial feeding- of infants, and the 

 need for greater care of illegitimate infants. 

 There follow a series of beautifully executed 

 statistical diagrams and illustrations of sanitary 

 interest, which make this volume an admirably 

 instructive picture-book. An abstract of legisla- 

 tion bearing- on maternal and child welfare 

 follows, and the remainder of the volume, from 

 p. 113 to p. 427, is occupied by statistical sum- 

 maries of maternal and child mortality in various 

 towns in England and Wales, followed by com- 

 ments and recommendations by the local medical 

 officer of health, some of which are most useful. 



The second volume is contributed by Dr. Janet 

 Campbell, and deals with three subjects : mid- 

 wives and midwifery, voluntary work for infant 

 welfare, and play centres and playgrounds. The 

 first of these sections contains an interesting- 

 sketch of the history of midwifery, and of the 

 practice of midwifery at the present time in this . 

 and other countries. There follow useful sug- 

 gestions for raising the standard of midwifery 

 in England and Wales, under which heading are 

 considered the questions of improved training, 

 improved status, and improved financial position. 

 The subject of midwifery practice in rural areas 

 is specially discussed, and there is a short sketch 

 of the important subject of maternity homes. 

 There will be general agreement with the state- 

 ment that, "even apart from real poverty, the 

 accommodatioa in many reasonably clean and 

 well-kept working-class homes is wholly 

 inadequate for a well-conducted labour and 

 lying-in." The parts dealing with voluntarj^ 

 work and play centres have much interest for 

 those engaged in this important branch of child- 

 welfare work, but need not be summarised here. 

 This volume, like the one contributed by Dr. 

 Hope, is lavishly illustrated by photographs, 

 showing in this case the activities of baby wel- 

 comes, sewing classes, baby hospitals, infant 

 nurseries, schools for mothers, etc. 



A prefatory note is introduced on behalf of the 

 Carnegie Trustees, in which, while expressing 

 their appreciation of the importance of the sub- 

 jects dealt with in the reports, they state that 

 they do not commit themselves to the acceptance 

 of the lines of policy or of the recommendations 

 which have been submitted for their reconsidera- 

 tion. This was a necessary reservation, 

 especially in view of the fact that it is under- 

 stood that the Carnegie Trustees have under con- 

 sideration the possible allocation of large sums 

 of money to this or other objects of social im- 

 portance. It may be hoped that they will dis- 

 cover means for utilising their resources to aid 

 in the saving of maternal and infantile life and 

 in the avoidance of unnecessary' suffering of both 

 mothers and infants, while stimulating local 

 authorities to increase their present eflforts to this 

 end. 



Dr. Hope, in his introductory remarks, points 

 out three pressing necessities for which there is 

 as yet no adequate provision, or prospect of 

 making it. These are : — 

 NO. 2489, VOL. 99] 



(i) The provision of maternity homes. 

 (2) The establishment of welfare centres for pre- 

 matemity and infancy and the need for greater care 

 I of illegitimate infants. 



■ (3) Improvement in education in the various branches 

 I of the science of public health, and the encouragement 

 , of further research into the circumstances adversely 

 ; affecting infancy and motherhood. 



i In a prefatory note contributed by Sir Arthur 

 I Newsholme, the principal medical officer of the 

 Local Government Board, the first of these points 

 is particularly emphasised. He points out that, 

 although much improvement has occurred, it 

 still remains true that on an average in England 

 and Wales there occur w-eeH. by week sixty- 

 seven deaths of mothers as the result of pregnancy- 

 and parturition, and that a very large proportion 

 of these are avoidable, as shown by the fact that 

 in some areas the death-rate in connection with 

 child-bearing is two, or even three, times as high 

 as in others. The same is true of child mor- 

 tality. In some towns the death-rate among 

 infants under a month old is two or three times 

 as high as in others ; and the chief burden of 

 these reports is said in this prefatory note to be 



! the immediate need for further national effort to reduce 



\ sickness and mortality among" child-bearing jnothers 



, and the closely related mortality among infants before 



! birth and in the first month after live-birth. 



This article may be closed by the quotation of 



■ a further sentence from the prefatory note by the 

 ! medical officer of the Local Government Board : — 



Maternity homes are urgently needed, and I know 

 of no social work so likely as the provision of such 

 maternity homes to give immediate results in saving 

 maternal and child life, in diminishing chronic in- 

 validism of mothers, and in enhancing the national 

 welfare. 



W^e hope that these reports will have a wide 

 circulation and will reach a wider public than 

 the official reports on the same subject which 

 have alreadv been issued. 



NOTES. 



The Treasury has informed the British Science 

 Guild that the issue of the Keiv Bulletin is to be 

 continued subject to the omission of certain classes 

 of information. The announcement was made in the 

 House of Commons on July 4, when Sir William 

 Beale, a member of the executive committee of the 

 Guild, asked the Secretary to the Treasury "whether 

 the question of continuing the printing and publish- 

 ing of the Kew Bulletin had been reconsidered; and 

 whether he can now give an assurance that this pub- 

 lication, or at least that part of it which is devoted 

 to the spread of useful knowledge of plant culture 

 and plant products throughout the Empire, will 

 shortly be resumed?" Mr. Stanley Baldwin's reply 

 was : " I am informed that the question of the sus- 

 pension of the issue of the Kew Bulletin was con- 

 sidered by the Select Committee on Publication and 

 Debates Reports last week, and that it was decided 

 to recommend that the Bulletin should be continued, 

 but with due regard to economy. Subject to the 

 omission, therefore, of certain classes of information 

 which, though doubtless of scientific interest, can, it 

 is thought, be postponed without detriment to the 

 welfare of the State, the publication of the Bulletin 

 will be resumed." In reply to a question asked bv 



