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DIARRHŒA.
Under the heading Diarrhœa are included several different affections
confounded with one another on account of the presence of Diarrhœa as a
symptom, but there is no doubt that Summer Diarrhœa, to which nearly all
the deaths were due, is essentially a specific disease.
138 deaths were registered from Diarrhœa, the average for the previous
10 years, allowing for the increase of population, being 120. In addition to
these deaths the majority of the deaths of infants, 50 in number, ascribed
to Gastro-Enteritis or Gastro-Enteric Catarrh, were of the same nature; in
fact it would be advisable for all these deaths to be reckoned under the
head of Diarrhœa for comparative purposes, as some practitioners seldom
return a death as due to Diarrhoea, but nearly always to Gastro-Enteritis, so
that the number of deaths in a district really due to Diarrhœa may be much
understated. The disease, as usual, was markedly in excess in Fulham as
compared with London and the adjacent parishes, the death-rates from it
being for Fulham 1.15, London 0.72, Kensington 0.35, Hammersmith 0.80
and Chelsea 0.67; that of Fulham being only exceeded by 4 of the
Metropolitan sanitary areas, viz., St. Luke 1.23, St, George-in-the-East 1.24,
Clerkenwell 1.31, and St. olave 143; and by 4 of the large provincial towns,
viz., Liverpool, 1.16, Birmingham 1.20, Salford 1.23, and Leicester 1.35.
116 of the deaths occurred in the months of July and August, and
the death rate for the summer quarter was 4.05.
As is always the case nearly all the infants who died were hand fed, and
there can be no doubt that a large proportion of the deaths was due to the
carelessness or ignorance of the persons in charge of the children. Thus during
July and August the deaths of illegitimate children under one year were in the
proportion of 735 deaths to 1,000 births, more than half the deaths being due
to Diarrhœa —in other words, the death-rate of illegitimate children from
Diarrhœa alone was much higher than that of children born in wedlock from
all causes.
Most of these children are put out to nurse, and there is at present
insufficient supervision both over the homes in which they are kept, and the
persons in whose care they are placed.
A Bill, however, entitled "The Infant Life Protection Bill" has been
introduced into the House of Lords. The Bill provides for the notification
to the local authority by all persons receiving more than one child under the
age of five years, the local authority to have the power of inspection and
supervision.