ITEMS FROM FAR AND NEAR.I

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3454, 4 October 1913, Page 7

ITEMS FROM FAR AND NEAR.I

EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN. The women •of the United States are making a strong effort to abolish child labor, but, unfortunately, fn the States where this evil is greatest, such as Georgia, women' have no vote, and carry no weight. However, public opinion is being educated on this matter throughout America, and the women have a strong supporter in Mr Jack London, who has used his eloquent pen in the cause. The exploitation of children is one of the darkest •blots on American industrial life, and, as one factory inspector said, “Wo lead all other civilised nations in our destruction of childlife.” 1

THE CHEERY OPTIMISM OF TO-DAY.

At the International Medical Congress, recently held in London, two features stood out conspicuously, says the “Queen.” They were the cheery .©ptiimism of most of the addresses or papers, and the large num!>er of women. doctors present as mem be. t. It is of interest to'note that a woman, Mine. Curie, is Gassed with, the scientific giants, Lister, Pasteur, and Koch, to whom medicine owes so much, and without whose Labors, said Sir Thomas Barlow, the president of the congress, medicine and surgery would have been poverty-stricken. In other branches of research work also women are to-day playing a by no means inconsiderable part, _ while in practice there are now so many women that their presence at the conference was one of the most striking features. Thirty-two years ago, when the International Medical Congress last assembled in London, the women members numbered scarcely half a dozen ; this year they were counted in hundreds—a fact not only pleasing to the pride of women, but of great practical interest to them as potential patients, for many women; prefer to tie attended by one of their own sex. RULES FOR GOOD TEETH. Decayed teeth are reckoned in millions by Dr. J. Sim Wallace, of London, who places the value of a sound tooth at £l. “Among the forty millions of people in the British Islands it is estimated that there are between 250,000,000 and 400,000,000 of decayed teeth. During the South African War 2451 soldiers were invalided home on account of defective teeth,” said Dr. Wallace, who maintained that when the teaching of the past had been replaced by correct teaching, dental diseases would be rapidly exterminated.

Among the rules suggested f r the prevention of decay in teeth were the following: To children up to two and a half years of age all starchy or sugary food except milk should be given in a firm or fibrous form to stimulate mastication. Bread and rusk should never be soaked in milk If soft, starchy or .sugary food has been eaten, the mouth and teeth will be cleansed by food of a detergent nature. Thus "fresh fruit should be oaten after milk puddings, jam roils, cake, sweet biseutis, and bread and jam. Three meals a day. Sweets, chocolate, or biscuit and milk should never be taken between meals or before going to bed.

MARRIAGE A TANDEM! “People speak of ‘double harness,’ ” slie said. “But marriage isn’t double harness. It’s a tandem. There is a leader to prance and shy, and a -wheeler to pull and keep the cart in the centre of the road when the leader jumps towards the ditch.” She spoke with sudden seriousness. “That’s true,” he echoed. “And

how patient the wheelers are!” i| ' “Ten years earlier she had been 1 a beauty; now she was a bust.” i —Julian Street in “McClure’s Magazine.” ’ *

i CHILDREN “BORN TO DIE.” i* Dr. Chalmers, Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow, at the Medical Congress, referred to the heavy death rate among children, especially during the first month after bp'th, said that twothirds of the deatlis could be ascribed to causes suggesting cell deteriom- : tion in the ante-natal stage. There j was a large group of children “born i to die,” and this was due to a strain | of inefficient preparation for mofcher- | hood, or of inability to beget healthy | children which was independent of surroundings. Dr. Koplik (New York) affirmed the importance of prenatal influences and suggested that the low percentage syphillis lav in difficulties of diagnosis at this early age. | Sir Francis Cbampneys suggested that the State should do more than- ft has done. Schools for prospective mothers would, in the end, prove a cheap investment for the State. It must be made fashionable for women to nurse their babies

FIRST SAVE THE BABY. “The fact i-s that you cannot have a soldier, or a sailor, or even a member of Parliament, supposing that you wanted, one, without first saving a baby,” says the “New Statesman.” “Excepting only the cases of Minerva, Adam and Eve, it is now clear that the origin of adults must be traced back, through various phases, to infancy. The chief single cause of infant mortality is a defective condition of development at birth, and this depends upon the facts of ante-natal life. If wo are to save infants, in short, we protect the mothers, who are the original device of Nature for the prevention of infant mortality.”

THE ONLY WAY. “After years of effort in behalf of unfortunate girls. Supt. A. V. Elliott, of the Southern Rescue Mission, Atlanta, Ga., has quitted the battle, and the mission, long well-known in the South, wi” be dissolved. He leaves this work of reform convinced that the efforts to ‘rescue’ are foredoomed to failure .in the great majority of cases.” says the “Boston Congregationalist.” “He argues that the ‘rescue’, work must begin at the source in this dreadful evil, and sums up his contention thus: ‘I contend that rescue work begins with .the individual home and the individual oarent and ends right there, tool”