WE ARE growing weary of the increasing number of special days and weeks devoted to certain causes, but we must make an exception in favour of Baby Week. It was high time that something should be done to lessen infant mortality, which, in view of the decrease in the male population as a result of the war, the restriction of families, and a growing disinclination to marriage on the part of the emancipated and economically independent woman, threatens the extinction of the race. A hundred thousand infants, it is said, are born dead every year, and another hundred thousand die in their first year. Perhaps these figures are excessive, but we have it on the authority of Lord Rhondda and the Local Government Board that at least one thousand babies die every week. To save this wastage of life something must be done, and that without waiting for the formation of a Ministry of Health, which apparently is impossible this year. Voluntary effort can do something in the meanwhile, but municipal and other local authorities could do more. Maternity and infant centres are wanted all over the country, and the improvement of housing conditions ought at once to be taken in hand. . .

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