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182 INFANT MORTALITY AND ITS CAUSES.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
* , About One-Fourth Of All The Children...
may be added , when she feeds her child injudiciously , deprives him of proper - exerciseallows his blood to be contaminated by foul air ,
or , saddest of all , , slowly poisons him with deadly drugs . All these belong * to the class of preventible causes , and the great question
arises , What should be done to arrest them ? If we mistake not , a more active sympathy and closer
intercourse between the upper and the lower classes would effect much . The perfect liberty possessed by even the poorest in this
free country has this effect—the ignorant are as completely given over to the dominion of their ignorance as the highly cultivated
are free in the exercise of their mental culture and in the use of all the lights of science . This disadvantage is greatly increased
in large towns and manufacturing districts by that almost complete separation which prevents the civilizing influence of
the better classes from being felt amongst the lowest . In this metropolis there are districts in which the isolation of the poor
appears complete , and it is curious to observe its effect on their manners and habits . There is a bluntness about them which might
be mistaken for , but is not intended as , rudeness . They will make statements without hesitation that , on the score of modesty , would be
abstained from hy persons of their class who had mixed with those superior to them in station . Speaking of each otherthey call
them-, selves " ladies" and " gentlemen , " and there are other little traits which those who have had experience of them , as at the hospitals and
dispensaries , may easily call to mind . But the essential thing is , that these poor people are usually in a state of mental darkness painful
to contemplate . They are seldom influenced by any sense of religion , and if they read , their worst passions are ministered to by a
literature which thrives on their debasement . It is not easy to effect reforms amongst people of this class , but the task is not
hopeless . For the succeeding generation , as has been already said _,, much may be _exj ) ected from instruction of the young . One is
almost tempted to wish that Government would take the part of an enlightened if an absolute parentand insist that a certain amount
of knowledge should be acquired , by every sane individual . Adults are to be instructed by example rather than by precept ; but for
this a more active sympathy and closer acquaintance between the educated and the ignorantthe rich and the poorare urgently
required . There is no lack , of a charity generous , but cold , and money is lavished on all objects that seem to deserve it ; but few
take even the trouble of inquiring , and still fewer personally acquaint themselves as to the fate of their money . Let it become
the habit of the wealthy to be charitable in person rather than by proxy . Instead of confining their experience to the paragraphs of
newspapers , and giving a final vent to their feelings by a cheque on their bankers , let them see with their own eyes the haunts of
misery and vice . By this the efncacy of their alms would be enormously enhanced ; kind words supported by timely aid in the i
182 Infant Mortality And Its Causes.
182 INFANT MORTALITY AND ITS CAUSES .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1862, page 182, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111862/page/38/
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