Medical Officer's annual report [to] Durban Corporation.

  • Durban (South Africa). Public Health Department.
Date:
[1916]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical Officer's annual report [to] Durban Corporation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    47/98 (page 23)
    Mortality, liven Voluntary Health Visitors must he practically acquainted itli the daily routine of an infant's life,—its feeding, clothing, sleep and possible ailments, and must also be possessed of great tact. It will doubtless have struck the thoughtful person that the time to start educating a woman in the conduct of infant life and hygiene is surely not when she is a mother or about to enter motherhood, who will ask “ Cannot something be done in this direction for older girls at school or in continuation classes? In competent hands this can be done, and if education is what it pretends to be, viz., to tit a person for her after life work, it ought to be done. Part of every girl’s education should be to instil the cardinal principle of breast feeding of infants, to show that cow’s milk, however pure, is the secretion intended for that animal’s young, the digestive system of which is vastly different from that of the human being, and that the composition of cow s milk—meant for a different order of animal—is quite different from human milk. Instruction might be given as to how to make the best of a bad job by preparing cow’s milk to resemble in quality that of the human secretion. Much more could be taught, but a start on infant food would be of prime importance and more useful for 99 per cent, of young women than algebra, etc. 1 he following interesting table exhibits the ages at which infants have died in Durban during the period 1900-1910: —