t that it has recently been recommended that every
girl should spend a year of service [_Dienstjahr_--analogous to the term
of military service obligatory on all males in Germany] in hospitals,
asylums, &c., whereby she would gain enlightenment concerning many
things which will be of value to her in her subsequent married life. All
such proposals are so much matters of detail, that I have thought it
inadvisable to discuss them here.

The most important requirement of all is certainly a good educator--a
word used here in the widest possible signification. The best of all
educators for the child should be its own mother; although we may agree
with the assertion recently made by Eschle[152] and others, that the
father has important duties to fulfil as instructor, even during the
child's first year of life. Nevertheless, the father, even if his
professional training gives him especial skill in these directions, is
not really likely to do very much in the educational way for his infant
offspring. It is to the mother, above all, that the care of infants and
young children is of necessity entrusted. We have, however, to remember
that a large proportion of mothers, especially those belonging to the
ranks of the proletariat, take part in the work of breadwinning for the
family, and are thus prevented from giving as much attention to their
children as might be wished. But in the families of the well-to-do there
is often no question of the mother herself playing the principal part in
the education of her children, since it is customary for her to depute
so many of her maternal duties to hired substitutes. It has recently
been maintained that it is to the Woman's Movement that we owe the fact
that the question of the sexual enlightenment has now become a live one;
but this is certainly an overstatement, though it is not to be denied
that women have had some influence in this direction. But if the women
who play a prominent part in the Woman's Movement would do more than
they have done as yet to impress upon the women of the well-to-do
classes an understanding of their duties towards their children, they
would certainly be doing excellent work. No paid substitute can
adequately replace for the child the benefits it will derive if its
mother herself does all that she could and should do. A mother who
seriously devotes herself to the care of her child, need have no anxiety
about the risks of its being misused by others for sexual purpo