THE CARE OF YOUNG CHILDREN. 



WE are all agreed to-day as to the value of child-life, for is not this quite 

 commonly described as " the century of the child? " But could we all, if 

 called upon to do so, give sound reasons for this faith we profess to hold? 

 As a matter of fact, 



THERE ARE MANY GROUNDS FOR THE OPINION. 



It may be the outcome of the anxiety caused by the steadily diminishing birth- 

 rate ; or by the appallingly high rate of infant mortality ; or the annual toll taken by 

 preventable disease in the early years of life; a series of stern facts brought more 

 and more prominently before the public in the reports of medical and sanitary 

 experts and by a discerning press. Truly they represent a menace to 



THE PROGRESSIVE EXISTENCE OF CIVILIZED NATIONS; 



because, in a quarter of a century, more or less, there will be a deficiency of sturdy, 

 strenuous, middle-aged burden-bearers in the population and an excess of those 

 whose capacities as Empire-builders are enfeebled by age or undeveloped on account 

 of childish immaturity. 



To the sanitarian these unpalatable facts speak, too, of thousands of damaged, 

 debilitated lives, unfit for the stress of modern life, unable to "realize their latent 

 powers; for scientific observations, associated with carefully collected statistics, 

 prove conclusively that 



THE YOUTHFUL SURVIVORS 



of conditions fatal to the more weakly bear obvious traces of their infantile struggle 

 for existence. Many of these lifelong scars may be detected in the form of stunted 

 stature, enfeebled powers of resistance to disease, lowered capacity for work, or in 

 defects of brain, body, sight, and hearing. 



Or it may be that our attention has been called to the importance of childhood as 



A PERIOD IN LIFE RICH IN POSSIBILITIES, 



upon the orderly realization of which depends adult efficiency. It may be that some 

 remarks made in our favourite periodical upon the relative influence of nature and 

 nurture upon the young human being have awakened our interest and aroused in 

 us a deeper respect for this marvellous " clay cottage " in which our spirits are 

 housed. 



By whatever means the impression has been made, the fact remains that in most 

 cases 



IT IS DEEP AND ENDURING; 



hence the growing desire to learn from reliable sources in what consists the 

 intelligent care of child-life. 



Societies for the purpose of such study have existed in the Motherland and in 

 the United States for at least twenty-five or thirty years. The Parents' Educational 

 Union, the Mothers' Union, the Child Study Society, the Froebel Society, for instance, 

 have branches all over the United Kingdom ; while, of more recent date, the Eugenics 

 Education Society and the National Society for the Welfare of Infancy are 

 emphasizing still other aspects of this comprehensive subject, which embraces every 

 phase of existence and development, physical, mental, and moral; ante- and post- 

 natal childhood and adolescence. 



