Some Recent Advances in Paediatrics *From an address delivered to the Torquay & District Medical Society on Thursday, March 9th, 1950.

The first condition I want to mention is concerned with " milk dryness This occurs in primiparae who at the commencement of lactation seem to have an adequate supply of milk which dries up after two or three weeks. It has been found that this is due to the fact that the baby does not empty the breast completely at each meal, so that a residue of milk is left: and this, accumulating and causing pressure in the breast acini, brings about the cessation of milk secretion. This condition can be overcome by teaching the mothers to empty the breasts themselves by manual manipulation after feeding. At the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies at Woolwich this excess milk forms the nucleus of the milk bank which has proved so useful in supplying human milk when required for premature babies both at this and other hospitals. Next let us turn our attention to the importance of neonatal sepsis. It has to be remembered that the new-born has not had time to attain any real resistance to infection. Even the mildest degree of infection such as a sticky umbilicus or gummy eyes is likely to prove dangerous and may well lead to septicaemia. The picture of sepsis in the new-born is quite unlike that in the adult: