The Nutrition of the Fetus

1919

Truby King Collection WQ 210 SJ79

New Haven: Yale University Press

‘The placenta is the great exchange centre for buying and selling – intake and excretion. The placenta acts as lungs and kidneys for the foetus’. So reads the hand-written note on Truby King’s copy of Josiah M. Slemons’s The Nutrition of the Fetus. Slemons (1876-1948) was Head of the Department of Obstetrics at Yale University from 1914. King believed the health of the mother during pregnancy contributed greatly to the health of the child after birth. Throughout his career he advised pregnant mothers to get fresh air, exercise and eat well since ‘nutritive checks in pre-natal life… leave their brand on the future potentialities of every tissue of the body’. The text contains King’s underlining, ticking and notes.