I sometimes wish the prospective mothers in our dispensary districts might have some of the care and the kind treatment which is bestowed upon an ordinary prospective mother horse, which at least enjoys a vacation from heavy labor, and whose food is eaten with calm nerves and in the quietness of a clean stall. While the state of the mother's mind does not materially influence the child; nevertheless, the state of the mother's body, the weary over-worked muscles and nerves of hot, tired women, bending over cook stoves, laundry tubs, or scrubbing floors, does materially derange the mother's health and digestion, which in turn, reflexly interferes with the growth and physical development of her child. Extra strength is required for the day of labor, and since the baby doubles its weight during the last two months, the mother is living for two, and should, therefore, avoid extreme fatigue, over tiring, and irksome labor during these final weeks of watchful waiting. SELECTION OF THE HOME It may or may not be within the province of prospective parents to rearrange, rebuild, or otherwise change the home. Usually the size of the pocketbook, the bank account, or the weekly pay envelope decide such things for us. The home may be in the country or suburbs, with its wide expanse of lawns, its hedges of shrubbery, and with its spacious rooms and porches; or it may be a beautifully equipped, modern apartment on the boulevard of a city, with its sun parlors, large back porches, conveniently located near some well-kept city park, or it may be one of those smaller but "snug as a bug in a rug" apartments, in another part of the city, where usually there is a sunny back porch; or again some of my readers may themselves be, or their friends may be, in a darkened basement with broken windows, illy ventilated rooms, with no porches, no yards, no bright rays to be seen coming in through windows--and yet into all of these varied homes there come little babies--sweet, charming little babies, to be cared for, dressed, fed, and reared. And we must now proceed to the subject of making the most of what we have--to create out of what we have, as best we can, that which ought to be. SANITARY PREMISES