View report page

7
most efficient manner would be through the medium of a properly qualified and
trained female health visitor employed by the Council and possessing the requisite
knowledge, experience, judgment and tact.
Shoreditch is a district which has a high infantile mortality. As compared
with that of the Metropolis its infantile mortality is very high, and during the past
five years has averaged higher than that of any of the Metropolitan Boroughs.
That a densely populated Borough like Shoreditch, containing as it does a large
proportion of very poor inhabitants, should have such a mortality above the average
for the Metropolis is perhaps only what might be expected. It is, nevertheless,
a circumstance to be regretted, and any measures likely to lessen this high mortality
should receive the serious attention of the Sanitary Authority. The point for
consideration is whether by action on the part of the Sanitary Authority in the
manner already foreshadowed the high infantile mortality of the Borough is likely
to be reduced. Without doubt it is; although it would not perhaps be wise to
venture an opinion as to the extent of: the reduction. This would largely depend
upon the efficiency with which the work under the Act, if adopted, was carried
out. One very important factor in the production of a high infantile mortality is
undoubtedly the ignorance which is so frequently to be met with in respect to the
elementary principles of rearing infants. It is against this that the Act is more
particularly directed. The mortality amongst infants resulting from this cause alone
is a very considerable item in the total amount of infantile mortality, but it is an
item which could be reduced if the mothers only had a proper knowledge of the
needs of their offspring and acted upon it. Such being my belief, it was my duty
to advise that the Act be adopted ini the Borough, and that a health visitor be
appointed to carry out the necessary duties arising thereunder. The personal
qualifications of a health visitor for this purpose have already been briefly touched
upon. There is one point in connection with her experience and training, however,
to which great importance is to be attached, and that is the possession of a good
experience as a professional midwife. Such professional knowledge would
undoubtedly give the health visitor a locus standi1 amongst mothers she would not
otherwise possess, a matter of no small importance for securing the successful
operation of the Act.
The consideration of the question of the adoption of the Act camel before the
Council in November, but was deferred for six months, so that it will not come
before the Council again until May of the current year.
The deaths amongst children aged from one to five years numbered 423. Of
these 83 were attributed to measles, 56 to whooping cough, 19 to scarlet fever, 14
to diphtheria, 50 to various forms of tuberculosis, 11 to diarrhoea, 7 to rickets,
9 to meningitis, 25 to bronchitis, 94 to pneumonia and 8 to enteritis. Accident or
negligence resulted in 18 deaths, 5 of which were due to burns or scalds and three
to vehicular traffic.