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28
the action of the London County Council, who now supply to
the Sanitary Authorities, weekly lists of births attended by
midwives during the preceding week. This information, which
the County Council are able to obtain as the local supervising
authority under the Midwives Act, is of very great value, and
will no doubt contribute materially to the resources of the
Sanitary Authorities in their struggle for the reduction of
infantile mortality.
The premises where deaths of infants under one year have
occurred are visited by Miss Dawson, who makes a written
report on each case to the Medical Officer of Health, and takes
steps to remedy any insanitary conditions discovered on the
premises.
Seven deaths were recorded as due to suffocation in bed or
"over-lying." The following table gives the number of deaths
from this cause, occurring on each day of the week in each
year since 1896. The day refers to the morning on which the
death was discovered, and it will be seen that by far the greater
number of deaths were discovered on Sunday morning.
This suggests that the over-lying takes place when the parents
are under the influence of alcohol, and there are other facts
which support this view. These deaths should be taken into
account, therefore, in estimating the mortality due to alcohol.
1896.
1897.
1898.
1899.
1900.
1901.
1902.
1903
1904.
1905
Total
Sunday 6 4 3 4 4 5 3 — 3 2 34
Monday 4 3 3 1 3 3 2 — — 1 19
Tuesday 4 4 2 1 1 1 1 — 1 2 17
Wednesday 1 5 4 4 1 1 — — — — 16
Thursday 1 1 2 2 4 3 1 — 1 1 16
Friday 4 1 4 1 2 2 1 — — — 15
Saturday — 3 — 3 2 2 1 1— 1 13
Total 20 21 18 17 15 17 9 1 5 7 130