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44
reported to the Council and will subsequently be visited. This fact
serves to impress upon them that precautions must be taken.

Measles was much less prevalent during 1905 than in the previous
year, only 61 cases being reported as against 231. Almost all cases of
whooping cough were notified in the first five months of the year,
chiefly in March and April. Six cases only have been reported since
May. Chickenpox remained fairly constant throughout the year. Only
five cases of blight were notified, but in all probability there were many
more cases among children below school age.
(6) Visits of Instruction re Infant Management.
Copies of the birth returns are now sent weekly to the Public
Health Department. Most of the houses are then visited in order to
give instructions where it may be desirable to do so, and a leaflet or
card with simple directions is given to the mother. Special attention
is given to those cases where the baby is the first child, or where other
children are known to have died.
As parents are not compelled to register the births until the sixth
week, they generally delay doing so until then. In several cases death
had occurred by that time, and in some instances the families had
removed before the birth wa3 registered, and could not be traced from
the address given.
Weekly lists have latterly been sent from the London County
Council of those births which are attended by registered midwives.
These have proved of great advantage as the information is received
considerably in advance of that supplied by the local registrars. Eight
such lists were obtained in 1905, with an average of nine cases per week.
It would appear that about 25 per cent. of the births are attended by
registered midwives, but as the available statistics cover a short period
only, the conclusions can hardly be taken as final.
The majority of the infants are breast fed, at all events for the first
few weeks. Only a comparatively small number of mothers in this
district go to work regularly and leave their children in charge of others.
As there are few factories and laundries in the neighbourhood as compared
with other districts further west, married women have limited
opportunity of getting work other than as domestic servants or charwomen,
so there would appear to be little inducement for them to do so.
In some cases, however, mothers, who would otherwise have been able
to nurse their infants, were obliged to partially wean them in order to
go to work. The percentage of those who did so was increased during
the winter quarter, the period which corresponded to the time when the