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22
Of the 492 infants fed from the Milk Depôt, 305 were admitted
during 1910, the majority on the recommendation of medical
practitioners, and the remainder were recommended by Hospitals,
midwifes and the Council's Health Visitors, &c. Two hundred and
thirty-seven of the 305 children admitted during the year were more
or less seriously ill on admission, congenital and wasting diseases contributing
the largest quota.
The state of health on admission of the infants admitted during
the year are classified in the Registers of the Milk Depot as follows :—
Good health, 31 ; Immaturity and prematurity, 20; congenital
syphilis, 12 ; indigestion, 24 ; diarrhoea, 8 ; malnutrition, 26 ; sickness,
2 ; wasting, marasmus, 33 ; rickets, 10 ; congenital debility, 30 ;
improper feeding, 6; gastritis, 1 ; bronchitis and pneumonia, 12 ;
tuberculosis, 4 ; jaundice, 3.
It will be seen therefore that the majority of the children fed
were not from a normal population and further a reference to the
table on page 21 giving the age of these children and the length
of time fed shows that as regards 68 per cent, of them, they were
taking the milk for periods from one month to twelve months and
over.
The total number of deaths amongst the children fed from the
Milk Depôt was 27. The death-rate was therefore equivalent to
54.8 per 1,000. as compared with 96.6, the general infantile mortality
of the Borough. As pointed out in a previous Annual Report, the
method of calculating the death-rate of the children fed from the
Milk Depôt on the same basis as that of the general infant mortality
is somewhat open to fallacy. To be strictly accurate, only those
children who have been fed for continuous lengthened periods should
be taken into account, allowance being made at the same time for
deaths of children fed for shorter periods than one year; the assumption,
found in practice to be justified, being that the rates that are
ascertained to obtain for short periods would be maintained for
longer periods. In this connection it should not be overlooked,
as has already been mentioned, that the infants fed upon the Depôt
milk are not a normal infant population, the majority having been
admitted because of their more or less unhealthy condition. On the
whole it may fairly be assumed that, taking all the factors into
account, the estimate of the death-rate of depot-fed infants will be
found to be approximately correct.
In connection with the Infants Milk Depot there are two
weighing-rooms, situate at the Latchmere and Nine Elms Baths,