The wonderful story of life : a mother's talks with her daughter regarding life and its reproduction / reprinted by the British Social Hygiene Council ... by permission of the United States Public Health Service.
- United States Public Health Service
- Date:
- [1933]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The wonderful story of life : a mother's talks with her daughter regarding life and its reproduction / reprinted by the British Social Hygiene Council ... by permission of the United States Public Health Service. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![the little bird while it is growing to the age and size at which it will hatch. The stored-up food inside the shell is the part which is good to eat. Just as it is good for the little unhatched bird, so it is good for you and me. The egg of the cow and other animals, on the other hand, does not contain food, so it can be very small—so small that only a microscope would enable you to see it. These eggs are so small that, unlike the hen’s egg, the fish eggs, and the rose’s egg, they cannot, even after they have been made fertile, live outside the animal’s body. They can only be cared for properly within the bodies of their mothers. After a time, when they have grown into young animals, they are born into the world. Even then they are still pretty helpless and have to be cared for during long periods—puppies for weeks, babies for years. In fact, you, yourself, Helen Elizabeth, with your nine years, are not yet able to take full care of yourself and to make your own living. Your father and I still have the happiness of looking after you and having you for our child. And it is a wonderful blessing that parents do love to look after and care for their children. If the children are good and honest and truthful and brave, it gives the parents the greatest sort of happiness, much, much greater than any happi- ness that can come from money, pleasures, parties, fine clothes, shows, or any other thing. You, Helen Elizabeth, are a great happiness for father and me, because you have been a good girl, and we shall take the greatest care to look out for you until you are able to take good care of your- self. [20]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32172060_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
