Mankind in the MakingWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Philosophy
Mankind in the Making
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Social problems; Social sciences
Now, for a child to have all these needs supplied implies certain other
conditions. The constant loving attention is to be got only from a
mother or from some well-affected girl or woman. It is not a thing to be
hired for money, nor contrivable on any wholesale plan. Possibly there
may be ways of cherishing and nursing infants by wholesale that will
keep them alive, but at best these are second best ways, and we are
seeking the best possible. A very noble, exceptionally loving and quite
indefatigable woman might conceivably direct the development of three
or four little children from their birth onward, or, with very good
assistance, even of six or seven at a time, as well as a good mother
could do for one, but it would be a very rare and wonderful thing. We
must put that aside as an exceptional thing, quite impossible to provide
when it is most needed, and we must fall back upon the fact that the
child must have a mother or nurse--and it must have that attendant
exclusively to itself for the first year or so of life. The mother or
nurse must be in health, physically and morally, well fed and contented,
and able to give her attention mainly, if not entirely, to the little
child. The child must lie warmly in a well-ventilated room, with some
one availably in hearing day and night, there must be plentiful warm
water to wash it, plenty of wrappings and towellings and so forth for
it; it is best to take it often into the open air, and for this, under
urban or suburban conditions at any rate, a perambulator is almost
necessary. The room must be clean and brightly lit, and prettily and
interestingly coloured if we are to get the best results. These things
imply a certain standard of prosperity in the circumstances of the
child’s birth. Either the child must be fed in the best way from a
mother in health and abundance, or if it is to be bottle fed, there must
be the most elaborate provision for sterilizing and warming the milk,
and adjusting its composition to the changing powers of the child’s
assimilation. These conditions imply a house of a certain standard of
comfort and equipment, and it is manifest the mother cannot be earning
her own living before and about the time of the child’s birth, nor,
unless she is going to employ a highly skilled, trustworthy, and
probably expensive person as nurse, for some year or so after it. She or
the nurse must be of a certain standard of intelligence and education,
trained to be observant and keep her temper, and she must speak her
language with a good, clear accent. Moreover, behind the mother and
readily available, must be a highly-skilled medical man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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