The Child in Human Progress

NATIVE EAST AFRICAN MOTHER AND INFANT

(Courtesy of Museum of Natural History, New
York)

A WELL-CARED FOR ESKIMO INFANT

(Courtesy of Museum of Natural History, New
York)

FAMILY LIFE AMONG BIRDS. GROUP OF AMERI-
CAN EGRET

(Courtesy of Museum of Natural History, New
York)

A FAMILY OF Anthropoid Apes, from a Draw-
ING BY DAN BEARD

(Courtesy of Museum of Natural History, New
York)

FAMILY OF POLAR BEARS

(Courtesy of Museum of Natural History, New
York)

PRIMITIVE FAMILY LIFE AMONG THE HOPI
INDIANS

(Courtesy of the Museum of Natural History,
New York)

A HINDU CHILD-MOTHER, WHOSE CARES WILL
MAKE HER OLD AT THIRTY

ZULU GIRL WITH BABY. THE PRACTICE OF
EXPOSURE ENDED AMONG THE ZULUS ONLY
WITHIN THE PRESENT GENERATION

FACING
PAGE

SPECIAL REPOSITORY FOR Bodies of NEGLECTED
BABIES, CHINA

(Reproduced from "China in Decay")

AN OVERBURDENED CHINESE CHILD CARRYING
MORE THAN his Weight IN TEA.

(Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.)

"LITTLE MOTHERS"-THE ONE FIVE, THE OTHER EIGHT, YEARS OLD-CHINA

TSUCHI-NINGIO. CLAY FIGURE SUBSTITUTED
FOR HUMAN SACRIFICE-JAPAN

(Reproduced from "Transactions and Proceedings
of the Japan Society," Volume I)

CROCK CONTAINING REMAINS OF SACRIFICED
CHILD. UNEARTHED AT TELL TA'ANNEK

(Reproduced from “Life in Ancient Egypt")

A POMEIOC CHIEFTAIN'S WIFE AND CHILD

(From the Original Water-Colour Drawing in the
British Museum by John White, Governor of
Virginia in 1587)

ESKIMO MOTHER CARRYING INFANT IN HER
HOOD

(From the Original Water-Colour Drawing in the
British Museum by John White, Governor of
Virginia in 1587)

FOREWORD

HIS is a new sort of book, and unique. That

THIS

is why I look upon the permission to write a brief preface for it as a rare privilege. Writings on children are frequent. When, in 1875, I contributed, for Karl Gerhardt's immense Handbuch, my Hygiene of the Child, I quoted seven hundred treatises or pamphlets on that subject. There are now at least seven thousand of the kind, and the number of text-books on the diseases of children and infants do no longer lead a pardonable, rarely a laudable, existence. A few monographs on special subjects, or modern publications, as Erich Wulffen's The Child: His Nature and Degeneration (Berlin, 1913), or the two large anthropological volumes by H. Ploss, The Child in the Customs and Morals of Nations (third edition by B. Renz, 1911), are praiseworthy examples of useful books. But while these are instructive they do not rouse historical interest.

Indeed, the history of the child has been grossly neglected. The epoch-making works of Rosenstein, Charles West, Rilliet and Barthez, and Karl Gerhardt contain no history. The work of Puschmann (Neuberger and Pagel) fills twenty pages with the history of the child in a text of

344165

three thousand pages relating to the history of medicine. Altogether our country has been disrespectful to its best possessions, viz., the children. There was until a few decades ago not even a professional teaching of the children's diseases in our medical schools. A regular chair was established in 1860 (New York Medical College), -it lasted for a few years only. The second was in 1898 (Harvard). There were few child's hospitals or wards in hospitals until a few years ago, even in the largest cities. Society, law, humanitarianism did not mind children. It is only a few months that an official publication in our democratic country carried the title; "Is There a Need of a Child Labour Law?" and our civilization was humbled by medical discussion of the advisability of killing the deformed or unpromising newborn. It seems to take a long time before this republic of ours begins to work out of the ruts of semi-barbarism. And now, at last, there is a book to supply our wants.

Laymen have advanced ahead of the medical profession. Christ and the Stoics, the clergy and the public opinion of the Crusades and the Christian sentiments of the Mediæval Church, aye, the great slaughterer and revolutionary reformer, Napoleon, have called the children under their protection and benefactions.

A vast amount of study relating to primary populaces and nations in gradual development was required to learn the history of the child.

Illustrations

ISIS IN THE PAPYRUS SWAMPS, SUCKLING HORUS

(Reproduced from "The Gods of the Egyptians, or
Studies in Egyptian Mythology")

GROUP OF M'AYPTAH, THE PRIEST OF PTAH,
WITH HIS FAMILY

(Reproduced from "Life in Ancient Egypt")

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