f any other creature.
And by health I do not mean simply existence, freedom from
pain, or absence of disease, but rather organic power and
efficiency, the maximum vital ability possible to the
individual for the doing of all that seems most worth while
in life.

_Dr. Thomas D. Wood, Lake Placid Conference, 1902._

CHAPTER V

RESPONSIBILITY

The ideal of "home" is protection from dangers from _within_--bad
habits, bad food, bad air, dirt and abuse,--shelter, in fact, from all
stunting agencies, just as the gardener protects his tender plants
until they become strong enough to stand by themselves. The child's
home environment is certainly a potent factor in his future
efficiency.

But more than physical protection is that education in all that goes
to make up profitable living, acquired by following the mother or
nurse in her daily round and in having legitimate questions answered.
Imitation is the first step in good habits, as in learning to walk or
to read. That which is set before the child should be worthy its
imitation, and be of value when fixed as a habit. Habits of health,
correct position, deep breathing, clean ways, distaste for dirt in
one's person or in one's vicinity, liking for fresh air, for simple
food, good habits of exercise, of reading, and the thousand and one
trifles that go to make up the efficient worker in adult years, all
belong to the well-ordered home, where, as one author puts it, the
child is the business of the day.

But the State cannot risk its property too far.

When mothers become so careless or ignorant that half their children
fail to reach their first birthday, and of those that live to be three
years old a majority are defrauded of their birthright of health, some
agency must step in.

If the State is to have good citizens it must provide for the teaching
of the essentials to a generation that will become the wiser mothers
and fathers of the next. Therefore, even if we regard this as only a
temporary expedient, we must begin to teach the children in our
schools, and begin at once, that which we see they are no longer
learning in the home. "The achievement at Huddersfield, England, is
especially noteworthy. The average annual number of deaths of infants
for ten years had been 310. By a systematic education of mothers the
number was in 1907 reduced to 212. The cost of saving these
ninety-eight lives was about $2,000."[11]

[11] Dr.