,4 New School. 75 



children are regarded as encumbrances, and too often left to the care of 

 incompetent persons— and trained in various occupations, at the same 

 time having the care of their own children. By the time the children is 

 two years old. the mother is ready for some wage-earning occupation, and 

 the child has had n good healthy start in life. 



In Leipsig a system of voluntary visiting of these illegitimate 

 children, aided by the local authorities, is successful in compelling 90 per 

 cent of th-j fathers to contribute to the upkeep of the children. 



Poss.bly with the example of oth^r countries before us, British 

 Guiana may one day devise some means of dealing with our great problems 

 of the care of illegitimate children, the deaths of whom form about 70 

 of our total infant mortality. 



Legislation for the supply of pure milk for children is now in force 

 in most countries, and the cry went up some years ago for municipal or 

 charitable milk depots for infants, whereby a pure supply could be 

 assured. Experience of these in England has shown that if thoroughly 

 carried out, with sterilisation and individual supply, this is a most 

 expensive scheme, and in most towns it is now realised that legislation 

 for the improvement of the whole milk supply, strictly enforced, is of 

 more general value. 



The provision of a well-known pure supply has been found to 

 discourage breast-feeding, ignorant mothers believing that what is 

 municipal must be best, and therefore hastening to wean their infants in 

 order that they may reap the benefits of the i; pure supply." This was 

 found in St. Pancras, the pioneer district in schemes for infant welfare, 

 and the return of the authorities to insistence on breast-feeding met with 

 more success in decreasing the mortality than the best organised centres 

 for milk supply. 



Dr. Buchan, the Medical Officer of Health of St. Helens, the first 

 town in England to institute a milk depot, recently insiste I, at a conference 

 on Health Promoting Institutions, that " Infant Milk Depots, like fever 

 hospitals, must work solely for their own extinction.'" They are to be 

 regarded merely as a temporary measure, and it is questionable whether 

 their success warrants the expenditure of the amount of money necessary 

 for their upkeep. 



St. Pancras, under the guidance of the late Dr. Sykes, was the first 

 to start a " School for Mothers,'' a scheme which, from its inexpensive 

 beginnings, and success in all districts where the example of St. Pancras 

 has been followed (over SO of the •' Sehools '" are at present working in 

 Great Britain), seems to be of most use in the education of the mothers, 

 which in time we may hope " will lead to the voluntary prevention of 

 these evils, and to the removal of their causes.'" 



