In a later chapter we shall learn of what is being done through Christian orphanages for many little famine waifs and the orphans of those killed in battle and massacre, but, when we consider the untold harm to body and mind that has befallen these children before help reaches them, we realize that we must hereafter work with heart and soul at the task of prevention of these great evils if we believe in the welfare of the human race.
Health.
“Health,” we are told by Dr. E. T. Devine, “is influenced by the occupations and habits of growing children; by their play and their attendance at school; by the attention given to their eyesight, hearing, breathing, and digestion, to their spines, and to the arches of their feet, to their position at the desk, and to the type from which their text books are printed; by the readiness with which they make friends and so enter into the natural sports and exercises of childhood; by the development of their self-control, and their more or less unconscious acceptance of standards of conduct and principles of action which will be their ultimate safeguard against those diseases and weaknesses which come from indulgence of wrong appetites and desires.”
Foot-binding.
Judged by these standards, what chances have the children of Asia and Africa and the Pacific Islands for being safeguarded against disease and weakness and death? Consider the one matter of “attention to the arches of their feet” and compare such a standard of health with the age-long custom of foot-binding in China, and what hope is there for perfect, blooming health among the women of China or their children? A full description of the horrible custom of foot-binding may be found in Dr. James S. Dennis’s “Christian Missions and Social Progress” (vol. 1, p. 212). The effects of it upon the little girl victims are thus described by one who has every right to speak on the subject.
Mrs. Archibald Little, whose position as president of the Natural-feet Society has given her special reason for investigating, says in her book, “Intimate China”: “During the first three years (of foot-binding) the girlhood of China presents a most melancholy spectacle. Instead of a hop, skip, and a jump, with rosy cheeks like the little girls of England, the poor little things are leaning heavily on a stick somewhat taller than themselves, or carried on a man’s back, or sitting sadly crying. They have great black lines under their eyes, and a special curious paleness that I have never seen except in connection with foot-binding. Their mothers sleep with a big stick by the bedside, with which to get up and beat the little girl should she disturb the household by her wails; but not uncommonly she is put to sleep in an outhouse. The only relief she gets is either from opium, or from hanging her feet over the edge of her wooden bedstead, so as to stop the circulation. The Chinese saying is, “For each pair of bound feet there has been a whole kang, or big bath, full of tears.” And they say that one girl out of ten dies of foot-binding or its after-effects.”[11]
Among the changes that are sweeping over China, the Anti-foot-binding Movement ranks high in importance. It is receiving daily impetus by reason of all the new things Chinese women and girls want to do, which are impossible to accomplish unless they can walk instead of hobble. When this movement has really conquered the custom and “fashion” of centuries, there will be a better health report from the girls of China.
Utter carelessness or ignorance of the first principles of cleanliness is responsible for much ill-health and death. A “swat-the-fly campaign” would save thousands of unprotected baby faces from being covered with loathsome disease or disfigured with dangerous eye trouble, but it would encounter not only hopeless inertia,—it would arouse serious religious opposition. In some countries the “sacredness of life” means,—Protect the fly, no matter what happens to the baby.
Medical practice in non-Christian lands.
One subject, upon which Dr. Devine has not touched in his list given above, is the necessity for the protection of well children from contagious diseases, and of skilful, tender care of the sick. We might easily fill a chapter with the study of so-called “medical practice” as conducted in non-Christian lands,—a practice composed largely of mingled superstition, ignorance, cruelty, and avarice—but a few pages on the subject in addition to our earlier study of what takes place at the time of childbirth will suffice, we trust, to make earnest Christian women desire to study it further. It is easy to shrink from contemplating the sufferings of innocent children, and many a woman is tempted to say, “I am too sensitive, I cannot hear about such things.” But are we more sensitive than the little, shrinking, pitiful children to whom these things happen daily? Therefore, not to encourage morbid curiosity, but in order that as Christian mothers and sisters we may lift the burden from little shoulders unable to bear it, let us fearlessly face the facts as they are.