services is beyond description or definition — such, by their nature, are the provinces of the South, the North, and the Bekaa.

The provinces of Beirut and Mount Lebanon rely for the most part on private effort, and this alone is not enough; it can at no time fulfill the required purpose unless public effort extends its hand to fill, in its turn, the gap that exists.

Fourth — the heat of the climate has its importance as a cause of intestinal diseases. We all know that diarrhea among children increases in spring and summer, because heat affects the digestive secretions and makes the child, in the first months of life, liable to diarrhea. We cannot resist nature; but we can teach the mother the principles of child feeding, and the modifications to be made in it to suit the nature of our region and our climate. We can also show her the dangers of diarrhea, guide her to the ways of prevention and to seeking the doctor's advice at the onset of the illness, and press upon her not to put off seeking that advice until the disease grows grave and takes full hold of the child.

4 — What is the rate of infant mortality in Lebanon?

The rate of infant deaths in Lebanon is still a figure hidden in the unknown, and Lebanese society will not grasp the importance of health guidance and medical care in the early years before it learns the truth of this figure and of its causes.

We are in utter need of exact yearly statistics, for vital statistics are the primary means of bringing out the reality of the problem. We

cannot expect the Lebanese people to devote itself wholly to solving the problem of infant mortality — as Western society did during the past half century — before it learns its reality and is convinced of the necessity of improving it.

5 — Can the women's organizations in Lebanon make a positive effort to improve children's standard of health and lower the mortality rate?

Every time I return to the study of the important events that accompanied the growth of a renaissance which led to the creation of organized public programs for the care of mother and child in the Western world, and in certain Asian countries, my faith grows in the Lebanese woman's ability to undertake fundamental and important works in this field — it is her own field, and in it she has courses to run of far-reaching effect and range.

If important historical facts in the renaissance of twentieth-century man have escaped women's society in Lebanon, I would have one fact not escape it: the story of the founding of the American child welfare office known as the "Children's Bureau" — which has rendered splendid services in which American society, government and people alike, takes pride.

This seed, which left so telling a mark in lowering the rate of infant deaths in modern American society, was the fruit of a mighty effort begun by a woman, who formed a public opinion in its favor and found supporters for it in New York City in 1910, until its echo reached Washington and the White House adopted the idea, and it won