rue bread"?

The history of the "physical redemption" of the infant has a sequel
for us which is highly instructive.

Hygiene has not been confined to the task of anthropological
demonstration, such as that which not only made generally known, but
convinced every one, that the body develops spontaneously; because, in
reality, the question of infant welfare was not concerned with the
more or less perfect forms of the body. The real infantile question
which called for the intervention of science was the alarming
mortality among infants.

It certainly seems strange in these days to consider this fact: that,
at the period when infantile diseases made the greatest ravages,
people were not nearly so much concerned with infantile mortality as
with the shape of the nose or the straightness of the legs, while the
real question--literally a question of life and death--passed
unobserved. There must be many persons who, like myself, have heard
such dialogues as this: "I have had great experience in the care of
children; I have had nine." "And how many of them are living?" "Two."
And nevertheless this mother was looked upon as an authority!

Statistics of mortality reveal figures so high that the phenomenon may
justly be called the "Slaughter of the Innocents." The famous graph of
Lexis, which is not confined to one country or another, but deals with
the general averages of human mortality, reveals the fact that this
terrible death-rate is of universal occurrence among all peoples. This
must be attributed to two different factors. One is undoubtedly the
characteristic feebleness of infancy; the other the absence of
protection for this feebleness, an absence that had become general
among all peoples. Good-will was not lacking, nor parental affection;
the fault lay hidden in an unknown cause, in a lack of protection
against a dire peril of which men were quite unconscious. It is now a
matter of common knowledge that infectious diseases, especially those
of intestinal origin, are those most destructive to infant life.
Intestinal disorders which impede nutrition, and produce toxins at an
age when the delicate tissues are most sensitive to them, were
responsible for nearly the entire death-roll. These were aggravated by
the errors habitually committed by those in charge of infants. These
errors were a lack of cleanliness which would astound us nowadays, and
a complete absence of any sort of rule concerning infant diet. The
soiled na