ABSTRACT
Internationally, the turn of the century brought a new appreciation of childhood, a cultural awakening which manifested itself in a new awareness of the importance of childrearing methods in shaping healthy, well-rounded and productive adults.} The medical speciality of paediatrics also progressed with the general growth of scientific medicine in the later nineteenth century. At the same time, Canadian social reformers were opening their eyes to what they perceived as an acute need to protect and reinforce the home and family against the evils unleashed by increasing industrialization and urbanization. Children became the focus of their efforts. The opening decades of the twentieth century saw the evolution ofa complex institutional structure designed to setve child welfare concerns and to socialize the results of medical advances. It would take the impact of the First World War, however, to enlarge the campaign's scope and organize its efforts behind the expresslyqualified leadership of the medical profession.
