72 AMAND ROUTH, M.D., F.R.C.P., ON MOTHERHOOD. 



the cause being a still greater offender. They are a sure cause 

 of evil to their children, bringing needless hardships upon them 

 and inevitably blighting their future. Such motherhood is a 

 degradation of woman in her highest ideals, as well as being a 

 sinful waste of manhood. 



It is well that the false sophistry of Neo-Malthusianism is un- 

 sparingly exposed on page 61, as well as the terrible dangers of alcohol 

 on pp. 63 and 65. The fact of it being a persistent and virulent 

 poisoner of the ovary cannot be too widely known, and is 

 established scientifically beyond doubt. 



I now turn to the education of our girls in these subjects as 

 suggested by the admirable words which have fallen from our 

 Chairman — Mrs. Scharlieb. I feel sure that in future ages the 

 historicist will refuse to believe that so late as 1920 the greater 

 number of women were educated without any reference to their 

 coming position as wives and ni others, and without the least in- 

 struction in the care of infancy. Such criminal neglect will appear 

 too incredible to be believed. And yet it is the fact. For forty 

 years I have done my best to insist that all girls before their marriage 

 should have at least six months' instruction in these matters ; and 

 in my practice have succeeded in delaying the marriage of an ignorant 

 girl until she has had a six months' course in these subjects. 

 I have gone so far as to hope that some day our great Government 

 may be able to spare a few hours to consider the trivial 

 question of the welfare of the rest, and however difficult health 

 certificates may be, may at least enact that no marriages be 

 solemnized without the bride producing a certificate showing a 

 reasonable knowledge of the duties she is undertaking in 

 matrimony. 



With the present generation of the married, all that can be done 

 is to preach in season and out of season the old, old story that 

 " Babies under six months must have nothing but milk." No 

 one will believe the touching faith that still exists in the remote 

 districts in pap. It is indeed a fact that in a distant workhouse 

 only recently has the practice been discontinued of allowing every 

 new-born infant a loaf of bread per week, apparently ignorant of 

 the fact that they might almost as well have ordered strychnine. 

 The reason of the immensely greater mortality of artificially-fed, 



