children. But he loves them dearly. If one should die he would be
heart-broken."

"Is it a common thing here for children to die?"

"I am grieved to say that nearly one-fourth die in infancy."

"And those who live,--do they grow up in full health and vigor?"

"Oh, indeed they do not! Why, look at our crowded hospitals! Look at
the apothecaries' shops at almost, every corner. Look at the
advertisements of medicines. Don't you think there's meaning in these,
and a meaning in the long rows of five-story swell-front houses
occupied by physicians, and a meaning in the people themselves?
There's scarcely one of them but has some ailment."

"But is this matter of health subject to no laws?"

"The phrase, 'laws of health,' is a familiar one, but I don't know
what those laws are." "Mothers, then, are not in the habit of teaching
them to their children?"

"They are not themselves acquainted with them."

"Perhaps this astonishing ignorance has something to do with the
fearful mortality among infants. Do not husbands provide their wives
with books and other means of information on this subject?"

"Generally speaking, they do nothing of the kind."