THE ADRENALS yj 



haemorrhage into it may easily occur. This is a 

 serious complication, and often brings about a 

 very rapid fall of pressure with great prostration. 



Under modern social conditions the well-being 

 of infants and young children becomes a very 

 important matter, for the future of the nation 

 depends on the health of the individual. The 

 mother who suckles her child gives it a start in 

 life that, except for accident or carelessness, it 

 should never lose. It has been proved in human 

 and in animal life that milk is capable of conveying 

 antitoxin substances to the offspring after these 

 have been injected into the mother ; this is trans- 

 mitted immunity, but what is far more important 

 is inherited immunity. 



Probably all infectious diseases in a civilized 

 people eventually lead to a condition of partial and 

 increasing immunity. This takes place partly in 

 utero, but largely through the mother's milk during 

 the first year of the child's life. In artificially fed 

 babies this latter immunity giving power is of 

 course absent, and such are far more vulnerable 

 to outside attack. This vulnerability can only 

 be met by increasing the defensive powers, and 

 these are chiefly the adrenal and thyroid internal 

 secretions. The unhealthy conditions of adenitis 

 in childhood, of anaemia, liability to catarrh, 



