74 Timehri. 



Where possible,, the first is the best and most scientific method, but 

 force can be applied only by Governments, and legislation does not begin 

 find end with the passing of laws ; a constant watch must lie kept upon a 

 population to punish the evasions of those laws, and this necessitates an 

 expensive staff' of visitors, overseers, inspectors, and clerks, which no 

 country is likely to be able to maintain for one branch of health reform 

 only. 



Legislation in other countries has been directed to the improvement 

 of the condition of mothers working in factories ; the registration and 

 inspection of persons t iking for hire the care of infants : the care of 

 illegitmate children : and the compulsory notification of births. 



In most countries factory work is debarred to mothers within a 

 month before or after confinement, but by recent inquiries among the 

 wo king women of England it has been found that the enforced rest has 

 been coupled with semi-starvation from lack of wages at the time most 

 needed, and that the infant mortality has not decreased to the extent that 

 was hoped for by tho e framing the laws. 



Spain has a special provision for factory workers nursing their child- 

 ren, of two half-hours a day off' work, wi h no wage-deduction, 

 to enable the infants to be naturally fed ; and in man)' Parisian and 

 Roman factories a small creche forms part of the women's buildings. 

 allowing the working mothers to feed their children on the premise ■>. 



In Australia the inspection of persons taking infants to nurse for 

 hire is extremely stringent, licences being issued, and periodical inspec- 

 tions made to see that the infant is receiving the care and attention 

 necessaiy — a form of legislation that might with ureat advantage be 

 brougut into force here, when the number of children definitely or indefi- 

 nitely "boarded out"' is enormous — and the choice of persons, respon- 

 sible for the upbringing of the children, of the most haphazard description. 

 England has been behind hand in this type of infant care, for only so late 

 as 1910 was the notification of the receiving of infants for hire made 

 compulsory. 



In Hungary, the " children of the State."' mostly illegitimate, are 

 provided for in temporary ' asiles ' from wh>ch they dre boarded out 

 either with their own mother or foster-parents, and when older, trained 

 for agriculture, trades, or domestic service, the State finding the benefit 

 in the lower death-rate and subsequent increase in healthy population. 



Victoria assumes care of boarded-out children. If a month's payments 

 to the foster-mother fall in arrears the children then pass into the 

 charge of t e State Neglected Children's Department. 



Roumania has perhaps the best scheme for the care of fatherless 

 children, started by private enterprise, now aided by grants from Local 

 Authorities. This is an institution where the mothers are received, with 

 the infants — an improvement upon most " Rescue Homes " where the 



