Attention has been called in the last throe years to the 



WASTAGE OF INFANT-LIFE IN CANADA 



by Dr. Helen McMurchy, in her series of stirring reports on " Infant Mortality," 

 printed by order of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario ; while a considerable pro- 

 portion of the pages of the journal which represents the still youthful Canadian 

 Public Health Association are devoted monthly to the intelligent management of 

 children. It is most fitting, therefore, that it should form an item in the study 

 programme of the Women's Institutes. 



For, after all, does it not seem a strange thing that hitherto so little time and 

 thought have been given to the influences which contribute to the child's chances of 

 becoming, that 



NATIONAL ASSET 



about which many of us talk so glibly? The delusion dies hard that maternity 

 carries with it the knowledge necessary to the healthful rearing and intelligent 

 training of children. It is true that the realization that an infant's prospects of a 

 healthful and prosperous maturity are promoted or prejudiced by its ancestors is 

 very slowly dawning upon the public mind; but that the parent of to-day is making 

 or marring his descendants in the third or fourth generation is by no means generally 

 recognized. 



SOME CENTURIES AGO 



a king of France stood watching an ancient man as he laboured without pause, 

 planting date-kernels. " Why," asked the King, " do you sow the seeds of a tree of 

 such slow growth, seeing that the dates will not ripen till a hundred years lie 

 passed?" Prompt was the answer to the question: "Am I not now eating the 

 fruit of trees planted by my forefathers, who took thought for those who were to 

 come, and shall not I do likewise? " Is it possible that Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes 

 had this story in mind when he framed his reply to a lady who inquired 



AT WHAT AGE IT WERE WELL TO BEGIN THE EDUCATION OF HER CHILD. 



" Madam," said he, " a hundred years before birth." 



The ancient sower of date-kernels voiced a deeper truth than even he suspected 

 when he spoke of his responsibility to future generations; the witty reply of "the 

 Poet of the Breakfast Table," forecasted a line of teaching but now receiving tardy 

 attention namely, that the progenitors of the past transmitted their qualities t> 

 many more than their immediate offspring, and that a duty is owed to the unborn, 

 whose lives will be affected for good or ill by our actions in the present and by 

 those of our forefathers in the past. 



To study the facts of inherited tendencies: to impress upon the world its 

 responsibility to succeeding generations; to direct the attention of parents to the 

 right of every child to be " well born," is the mission of the Eugenics Education 

 Society, which derives its name from the Greek words " good birth " ; for its members 

 perceive that the diseased, the insane, the alcoholic, are incapable of transmitting 



THE TORCH OF LIFE 



undimmed to their descendants; far less can they hand it on brighter, more brilliant, 

 than they received it. 



This part of my subject is too complex and vast to be entered upon in this 

 bulletin ; but even a brief reference will illustrate its supreme importance to parents, 

 if only for the light it throws upon a problem often found to be as inconvenient as 

 it is perplexing namely, the diversity of character and appearance, the variation in 

 rapacity to resist infection, the disparity in standard of health, among the members 

 of a family. -John is a hopeless truant; Ted is as steady as Old Time; Jane is a 

 veritable angel in the house, while Clara is a firebrand. Mary "catches" every- 

 thing that comes her way and is always ailing, while P>ill enjoys riotous health all 

 his days! 



G 



