The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

166 THE HEALTH BULLETIN.be admitted every two minutes.Nearly four hundred entries weremade. Cold weather and heavy rainkept over one hundred babies fromattending. Requests for entry nextyear have already been made.The arrangements at the FairGrounds, while the best to be had,were, of necessity, crude and woefullyinadequate. Furthermore, noone connected with the contest hadever had similar experience. Everyonewho assisted with the work did itout of goodness of heart, without acent of pay or the hope of reward.Of course, with such a rush andunder such conditions, errors weremade and the work was of necessitysuperficial, but now that somethingis known about such contests we areconfident that next year the contestwill be much larger and much betterin every w^ay. For instance, as itwas, many different people assistedat different times, and of course thisnecessitated the loss of much valuabletime and many opportunities forvaluable work in learning just whateach person was to do. Next year,as far as possible, the same personswill help throughout the entire contest.We wish it might be possibleto pay at least the doctors and nurses.This would insure more uniform work,and work w-hich could be done understrict uniform supervision.But a beginning had to be made,and judging from the enthusiasm ofthe Fair visitors, the public press, andespecially from the mothers, even thebeginning was a first-class success.Many mothers have written since inregard to remedying some of the defectspointed out at the contest. Inmany instances doctors and nurseswere able to offer, at various points inthe contest, valuable advice and suggestionsin regard to the care andfeeding of the babies, which mighthave been strongly resented at othertimes.A few pessimistic persons were heardto prophesy that such a contest wouldengender the hardest kind offeelings,as every mother thought her babywas the prettiest baby in the State.Of course, these people were mistaken.They knew absolutely nothing about ahealth contest. They had nothing tobase their opinion on but the oldfashionbeauty show and voting contest.Of the nearly three hundred babiesjudged, only two inquiries weremrde in regard to why a baby was notscored higher, and in only one instancewas the question of unfairness raised.We are glad to say that in each casethe score card plainly set forth thefacts of the case, and when defectswere found the score card indicatedthe amount to be deducted.In the case of a health contest,nearly every mother comes not withthe expectation of having the prettiestbaby in the State, which she is stillfree to believe if she cares to, but tohave her baby's physical defects pointedout;with normal babies of that age, and,to learn how he measures upso far as possible in the short spaceof time permitted, to learn just whatto do to remedy these defects.Those entering the contest had thegraciousness to recognize that as theyhad paid no entry fee, as all thoseassisting in the work were doing it outof the kindness of their hearts, and asthe prizes were just so much morethat there was a chance of winning,they had little room for complaint,and much reason to be grateful. Expressionsof thanks have been receivedfrom a great many parents whosebabies were examined and from thosewho won prizes at the contest. Wecannot refrain from quoting just oneat this point, as it is typical of manyothers: ,