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43
Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1894.
The Ambulance Station nearest the parish is the South-Eastern one, situate at
the New Cross Road (near Old Kent Road Railway Station), S.E.
Telephonic communication can be made from the Health Department (within
office hours), to the chief office of the Asylums Board, and within a few minutes an
ambulance will be on its way, for the conveyance of the patient to the South-Eastern
Hospital (adjoining the South-Eastern Ambulance Station), if suffering from fever or
diphtheria; or to the South Wharf, at Rotherhithe, if it be a case of small-pox. In the
latter case, the patient will embark in one of the ambulance steamers for the hospital
ships at Long Reach. .
The Convalescent Hospitals, belonging to the Asylums Board, are two in number.
That for fevers and diphtheria is sitated at Winchmore Hill, in the North-East of
London; that for small-pox at Gore Farm, Darenth, distant about four miles from
the hospital ships.
Patients in a position to bear the expense of their support, and suffering from
fevers and diphtheria, or small-pox, can be accommodated at the London Fever
Hospital, Liverpool Road, Islington, and at the Highgate Small-pox Hospital,
respectively.
HOW TO BRING UP CHILDREN
The following Rules are copied from the Pharmacopœia of the Hospital for Sick
Children:—
1. Keep them warm. Let the clothing be warm (i.e., flannel or woollen), but not
tight. Children should wear stockings nearly up to the knees, and frocks well up to
the neck, with long sleeves. Give them plenty of fresh air ; take them out when
the weather is fine. Wash the Child all over with warm water daily. If possible
let the child sleep in a cot by itself. Open the windows at least twice a day.
FOOD.
2. If the mother has plenty of breast-milk, the child should not have any other food
whatever, until it is seven months old. It must be suckled every two hours during
the first month, and the interval gradually increased, so that at the end of three
months the child is suckled every three hours. Too frequent suckling is a common
cause of the sickness of infants.
4. If the mother has only a little milk, let the child have it; and in addition milk
mixed as directed in Rule 4. Except when ordered by a doctor, do not on any
account give the child any baked flour, arrowroot, corn flour, biscuits, tops and
bottoms, or any so-called "infant's food," before it is seven months old. It is a good
plan, if the mother has only a little breast-milk, that she should drink a cupful of
cow's milk half-an-hour before suckling.
4. If the child must be brought up entirely by hand, it should be fed out of a bottle
with cow's milk warmed and diluted. Fresh cow's milk must be used : during the
first month it must be diluted with at least twice as much water or, better still, with
lime water* in the same proportion, if the milk be of good quality ; the addition
of a table-spoonful of cream to each bottle when it can be obtained would render the
mixture more nutritious. A small quantity of white sugar must be added to each
bottle. As the child gets older, the proportion of milk must be gradually increased.
The milk should always be boiled before being used. This is especially important in
the case of infants under three months old, and in the summer.
5. If cow's milk cannot be digested after a fair trial, condensed milk may be given
—one teaspoonful to four or five tablespoousful of water which has been boiled, but
after a month another attempt should be made with fresh cow's milk. The best kind
of bottle is the old-fashioned straight one, with an india-rubber teat, and without any
* Barley Water is prepared as follows :—Two teaspoonsful of pearl barley to a pint of cold water,
boiled down to two-thirds of a pint, and then strained through muslin. A fresh quantity must be
prepared at least twice a day.