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Show 262 degree that Shipp did. Perhaps he had developed, in his extremely difficult years as a boy, a good tolerance for frustration and could bear it with more grace than could Shipp, who had more of a "silver spoon" heritage. Perhaps the greater contribution he made (as evidenced in the impressive body of studious work he produced) had the effect of softening life's blows for him. It is appropriate to discuss infant mortality in its impact on the Shipps while looking at Milford, for while each wife suffered her own losses, their husband faced them all and was called upon repeatedly to provide comfort and hope when he himself was feeling the losses in a very personal way. Ellis, in her diary, gave ample evidence that Milford really cared when she lost a child and that his vision of a continuing relationship with that child in the eternities was her most important source of hope. All of the information we have on Milford Bard Shipp points to the idea that he was a genuinely solicitous husband and father. But here, too, in the arena of closest personal consequence, he had his trials. Losses of Milford's children were great before, during, and after the three Shipp doctors received their training. Yet his experience was not untypical of the time. It was early yet for immunizations, and the twin phantoms-diphtheria and whooping cough-snatched away many babies and small children every year. Death stalked monogamous families, too, but considering only the middle and later childbearing years of the |