Already  a  national  fund  of  £90,000  has  been  raised,  a  yearly
subsidy  of  £1,000  is  expected  from  the  Prussian  Government,
and  some  of  the  other  Governments,  as  well  as  many  municipal
bodies,  will  also  help  the  scheme.  With  its  completion  will  be
realised  the  concluding  words  of  an  Imperial  Message  on  this
subJGct  which  was  published  three  years  ago:  "It  will  be
possible  to  check  the  high  infantile  mortality  not  only  by
removing  recognised  evils  but  by  more  persistent  scientific
research,  and  by  the  widening  of  our  knowledge  in  the  sphere  of
the  natural  and  artificial  feeding  of  infants."  The  project  is  a
truly  magnanimous  illustration  of  Germany's  belief  that  science
was  intended  to  be  the  handmaid  of  civilisation.
It  must  be  added,  to  the  praise  of  the  women  of  Germany,  that
in  all  the  large  towns  many  of  the  educated  and  leisured  of  their
number  give  ungrudgingly  of  their  time  and  ability  to  this  great
work  of  mercy  and  of  national  benefit.  Not  only  so,  but  in  order
that  their  co-operation  may  be  of  a  wise  and  helpful  kind  they
are  ready  to  organise  and  attend  preparatory  classes  in  which  to
equip  themselves  with  physiological,  medical,  and  hygienic
knowledge,  and  the  authority  which  that  knowledge  confers.  The
members  of  the  Women's  Patriotic  Society  regularly  hold  courses
of  lectures  for  the  instruction  of  mothers  of  the  working  class  in
nursing  and  feeding  and  in  general  household  management.
