It would be improper to close this section, touching child-life, without
some special reference to pre-natal care. It has been well said by
eminent authorities that a child's "_education should begin long before
its birth_." This to many may seem mysterious or even foolish, according
to their advancement on the plane of knowledge. But America has long ago
awakened to the truth of it, and pre-natal clinics have been established
on a large scale--notably in New York--for the scientific supervision
and comfort of expectant mothers who may need it. The natural right of
every child to be born in health and happiness, is at length recognized.
Human magnetism, or nerve force, is beginning to be understood and
utilized as a great vital, health-compelling, harmonizing factor of vast
significance to the future of the race.
The real and practical alliance between the physical and the
psychic--between body and mind--is better realized; as for instance: You
may be seized with _an idea_, or a passion, and it disturbs your _health
of body_; you may take indigestible food, or suffer injury or fatigue,
and it disturbs your _health of mind_.
But beyond and behind all else are all those seemingly occult and
sinister, pre-natal influences centered in hereditary and kindred
considerations which are still more significant and difficult to locate
and overcome.
These problems have been thought out and solved long before the dawn of
the present social awakening and the conclusions have been tabulated in
the closest detail from the first moment of embryonic life, faithfully
defining the paths that inevitably lead to the desired goal of Hygienic
Birth, of Physical Perfection and the Mental State termed Happiness, in
Infancy.
All these things will be found minutely focussed in picturesque relief,
in my previous work entitled: "Within the Bud."