25
of the cottage mother—the washing, cooking, cleaning, mending, making. So ask what plan she would recommend to carry out your suggestions rather than what she does. The old cottage mother has no idea of responsibility for the health of her family. It is all the "will of God." But the young mother, who has had some education, is anxious to be taught. A very pregnant remark was made: "How superior the animal mother is to the human mother in intelligent care of her offspring; the cow never tries to teach her calf to eat grass, and the cat licks her kitten all over before it is half-an-hour old." As has been said of other people, may yet more truly be said of cottage mothers. You cannot know them by just seeing them in class. You certainly cannot know their homes, their circumstances, their daily work so excessive, their troubles so bravely borne, their gossip—often their only recreation. You cannot know the points through which they can be influenced and influence others. They certainly cannot be managed or influenced in a lump—rather less than anybody else. You must know each and her individuality, separately at home, if you are to do any good. And you must be welcome to them. You must "mother" the cottage mothers, and the girls. And don't think that the gain is all on their side. How much we learn from the poor—how much from our patients in hospital—when heart meets heart. It is a rule among the best District Nurse Societies not to give alms (money).This also should be a rule of the Health Missioners. But without knowing the wants, the difficulties, temptations, fatigues, of their daily lives—without a serious study of their
