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30 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.

From the foregoing list it is seen that "Debility, Atrophy, and Inanition" is the
chief cause of infantile death in St. George's. This ill-defined group refers mainly
to chronic wasting disease, produced by malnutrition, which is again a consequence
of improper feeding. Infants fed naturally on mother's milk generally escape these
fatal consequeuces, which chiefly affect children brought up by hand.
Infants during the first six months of life are as little fitted to digest bread,
arrowroot, cornflour, biscuits, tops and bottoms, or any of the so-called infant foods,
as they would be to live on sawdust, shavings, or other foreign matter.
Another noteworthy feature in the list, is the excess of deaths from diarrhoea
during 1893 over that of 1892. This may he explained by the hot and dry summer
of the former, as compared with the comparatively cold and wet weather of the
latter year. Death from summer diarrhoea during the first few months of lifemay
be in large part prevented by the sterilisation of tainted food, or better still, by the
use of breast milk only.
The deaths from tubercular diseases, which include tabes mesenterica, popularly
known as " consumption of the bowels," tubercular meningitis, hydrocephalus,
(water on the brain) and scrofula, are probably due largely to the use of unboiled
milk, derived from cows suffering with tubercle iu the glands of the udder.
This fact points to the need of an increased supervision of dairies.
Lastly, deaths from convulsions and premature births are noticeable. The former
term is a symptom of a disease rather than a disease itself. Death owing to
premature births is often a sequel to improvident and early marriages.
The many causes leading to loss of infant life in St. George's may be thus
summarised:— (1) Bad environment, such as insanitary conditions, overcrowding
and absence of parks and open spaces. (2) Improper and insufficient food.
(3) Mismanagement by mothers through ignorance. (4) Early marriages. (5)
Debility of mothers. (6) Maternal neglect, due to mothers being more or less
employed away from home in factories and workshops. (7) Use of opiates : usually
in the form of patent medicines.
The mortality of children between the ages of two and five years is recorded as due
chiefly to bronchitis and pneumonia, and to such preventable diseases, as measles,
whooping cough, diarrhoea, diphtheria, and scarlet fever.