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how best to feed by hand. Special attention should be given to the
following points:—
(а) Milk.—This should be sterilized on arrival, and placed in a
scrupulously clean and covered receptacle, and kept in a cool place
until required for use.
(б) The quantity and times for each meal.
(c) Quality.—The proper dilution, &c., of milk according to age.
(d) Patent Food should only be used under medical advice.
(e) The kind of feeding bottle, and its treatment.
The visitor should advise as to the clothing and cleanliness of
infants. The sleeping arrangements for the infant should be enquired
into, and the parents should be warned against allowing it to sleep
in the same bed with themselves, and advised to have a separate
sleeping place for the child.
4. It would be the duty of the visitor to point out, unobtrusively
on every appropriate occasion, the importance of domestic and
personal cleanliness, sobriety and thrift.
The above is an indication of the lines along which, in my opinion,
the health visitor should work, but it is not intended to be a complete
schedule of her duties. The health visitor, on her visits, would
be provided with leaflets of instructions suitable for different
circumstances.
Generally, the health visitor would be instructed in her duties,
and supervised in her work by the medical Officer of Health.
During the preliminary and general discussion by the Public
Health Committee on the subject of health visitors, the question was
incidentally raised as to whether it would not be possible to have the
work above outlined done by voluntary lady visitors, and thus save
the Borough the expense of appointing special officers. I was
instructed generally to make inquiries whether it would be possible
to get ladies, suitably trained, to volunteer their services for this
work. Mrs. Farquharson, of 135, The Common, Clapton, to whom