The Developing Period 71 



mothers were not given proper oversight and 

 care during pregnancy. This early mortality 

 can be much reduced by instructing the mother 

 how to stimulate breast feeding during the first 

 months after birth, and by better methods of 

 hygiene and artificial feeding. 



Infants and little children are always the most 

 sensitive to bad environment. They are like- 

 wise the first to suffer from poor economic con- 

 ditions. The Federal Children's Bureau has 

 shown graphically how the infant death rate 

 goes up as wages go down. 



In a study of 3700 cases of serious illness in 

 infants and little children treated in the hospital 

 in a long series of years, I ^ found the causes 

 along three broad lines, — insufficient earnings, 

 bad housing and ignorance of the parents. Pov- 

 erty and sickness too often go hand in hand. 

 The Charity Organization Society has found 

 that fully two-thirds of the cases of poverty 

 it is called on to investigate depend, directly or 

 indirectly, on sickness. There is a shifting and 



1 "The Relation Between the Child and Hospital Social 

 Service" — Jou/rnal of the American Medical Association, 

 July 23, 1921. 



