the poverty of a family, but nothing can be worse for the welfare
of the woman as mother, or for the welfare of her child. Reid,
the medical officer of health for Staffordshire, where there are
two large centres of artisan population with identical health
conditions, has shown that in the northern centre, where a very
large number of women are engaged in factories, still-births are
three times as frequent as in the southern centre, where there
are practically no trade employments for women; the frequency of
abnormalities is also in the same ratio. The superiority of
Jewish over Christian children, again, and their lower infantile
mortality, seem to be entirely due to the fact that Jewesses are
better mothers. "The Jewish children in the slums," says William
Hall (_British Medical Journal_, October 14, 1905), speaking from
wide and accurate knowledge, "were superior in weight, in teeth,
and in general bodily development, and they seemed less
susceptible to infectious disease. Yet these Jews were
overcrowded, they took little exercise, and their unsanitary
environment was obvious. The fact was, their children were much
better nourished. The pregnant Jewess was more cared for, and no
doubt supplied better nutriment to the foetus. After the children
were born 90 per cent. received breast-milk, and during later
childhood they were abundantly fed on bone-making material; eggs
and oil, fish, fresh vegetables, and fruit entered largely into
their diet." G. Newman, in his important and comprehensive book
on _Infant Mortality_, emphasizes the conclusion that "first of
all we need a higher standard of physical motherhood." The
problem of infantile mortality, he declares (page 259), is not
one of sanitation alone, or housing, or indeed of poverty as
such, "_but is mainly a question of motherhood_."