The man and woman I know, who are very steady people, have six
children. The three elder ones are quite normal. After the birth of
the third the father had a very serious illness--double pneumonia
followed by typhoid fever--and for weeks he lay at death’s door. The
expense of all this so reduced them that they had to sell the best of
their furniture to pay doctor’s bills, over £20, and to keep going
until he could start work again. Then the doctor said he must not go
back to his work as a mason, and he had to take a job at labouring
work. This and short time brought his income down to 14s. per week,
and to make ends meet the wife had to go out cleaning. She had been
parlourmaid. She continued to do so until near the birth of her fourth
child, who was very delicate and suffered from abscesses. The mother
told me she did not know how to get sufficient food for them. When her
fifth child was born she had a bad time and the child appeared very
backward, but it was not until it was two years old that they knew its
brain was affected. He is in his sixth year, and can only say a few
words, and has never come downstairs, always had to be carried, and
at times is violent; if thwarted in what he wants to do will go into
violent tempers and throw anything he may have in his hand. He will
also put a rope round the neck of the younger child to play horses,
and has no control over bowels. A sad case indeed. The youngest child
is in his fourth year, and can only walk two or three yards without
help. He cannot say a word yet. I am beginning to be afraid he may be
dumb. Both his hands are deformed, and he has no control over bowels,
and has been ruptured from birth. Doctors say they cannot perform any
operation until he is stronger. When the mother asked the doctor how
it was her children were so delicate, he turned to her and said in the
kindest possible manner, “Ask the mother,” showing that it was due, in
his opinion, to the weak state she was in previous to their birth. I do
not think the two youngest will ever be able to work for themselves.
The mother looks almost distracted at times. I have known her from
girlhood, and pity her most sincerely.
_Six children._