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52 infantile mortality.
each description—a sufficiently wide difference. Full information as to causes and ages at
death, and occupations of the mothers, is given below.
Deaths of Illegitimate Children.
1910.
(Corrected.)
Ages (yrs.) Males. Females. Persons.
0— 1519 34
1— 9 6 15
5— — 1 1
Totals 24 26 50
Causes of Death.
0— 1— 5—
m. f. m. f. m. f.
Measles - 1 2 2 - -
WhoopingCough 2 - - 1 -
Diphtheria — — — — — 1
Diarrhœa 2 5 2 — - -
Enteritis 1 3 - - - -
Tuberculous Dis.- 1 1 - - - -
Premature Birth 2 4 - - - -
Developmental Dis. 2 2 - - - -
Syphilis 3 — — — — —
Respiratory Dis. 2 3 2 2 - -
Accident — — — 1 — —
Other Causes 1 — 2 — — —
Totals 15 19 9 6 —1
Inquests held—2.
Infantile Mortality.
Fully corrected.
Males. Females. Persons.
I. L. I. L. I. L.
1910 205 102 253 78 230 90
1905-09 249 112 180 94 215 104
I—Illegitimate. L—Legitimate.
Occupations of Mothers.
Domestic Service 32
Cook 5 General 6
Housemaid 6 "Servant" 12
Parlourmaid 3
Other occupations— 16
Charwoman 4 Actress 1
Laundress 4 Clerk 1
Dressmaker 4 Lady's Help 1
Shopkeeper 1
No occupation, occupation not stated 2
Infant Rearing (Health Visiting).—Last year the cards of inquiry used in this work
were issued as far as possible after the notifications of birth were received instead of after
registration, and after the latter only when a birth had not been notified. Altogether 2,922
cards were issued to the Women Inspectors, 1,453 being passed on by them to the Health
Society. The children visited numbered 2,115, the difference (808) being made up of 132
children dying before they could be visited, 172 removals, 84 wrong addresses, and 420
children deemed to be of a social position rendering a visit unnecessary. Of the 2,115
children visited, 1,298 were visited by the workers of the Health Society and 817 bv the
Women Inspectors. Visits were declined in 39 instances (not quite 2 per cent.), 31 refusals
occurred among the cases visited by the Health Society and 8 among those paid by the
Inspectors. The reports with sufficient information for tabulation numbered 1,988.
The most suitable time for the first visit to be made is during the third and fourth weeks
of the child's life. In the families for whose children advice is needed, the doctor, or midwife,
will have ceased attendance by the end of the second week and any possibility of friction is,
therefore, avoided by delaying the first visit until the date mentioned. One hundred and
fifty-eight visits were, however, made last year during the first two weeks, chiefly by the
workers of the Health Society, most of whom are District Visitors and know the mothers
sufficiently well to be able to call on them at that early date. During the third and fourth
weeks, 865 visits (nearly 44 per cent. of the total) were made, and before the close of the
second month, 1,499 (75.4 per cent.) of the children had been visited. On the other hand the
visits to 489 children were made at too late a date to counteract any ill results arising from
wrong methods of rearing.