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11. The presence of infectious disease (including whooping cough, measles
and chicken-pox) in a house must be at once notified at the Depot
12. Names of applicants for the milk will be received at the Depot daily
at 12 noon.
N.B.— The milk must never be used in preference to mothers milk, which
is the best of all foods for young infants.
The Medical Committee were fortunate in securing the voluntary
services of Miss Elliott as Lady Manager of the Depot, and she
instructs the mothers as to points needing their attention, and,
either herself or with her colleagues, arranges periodical visits to
each home represented, in order to see that, as far as possible,
the instructions of the Committee are carried out. Particulars
as to the sanitary condition of the house or tenement occupied
are furnished through the Public Health Department, and a
number of special facts bearing on the social life of the child
are obtained in due course by the lady visitors. The child is
brought once a fortnight to the Depot to be examined and
weighed.
The Depot was opened on Nov. 23rd with four children. At
the end of the year there were 15 on the books in daily receipt
of the milk. Nearly all these infants have thrived on the milk
and have increased in weight, It would have been possible to
have taken many more children, but owing to unavoidable
circumstances we had not sufficient bottle-stoppers of the kind
desired, and only by the kindness of Dr. McCleary, of Battersea,
and Mr. Seebohm Powntree, of York, who lent us a large number
of stoppers, were we able to proceed at the outset. It is not the
intention of the Committee to undertake to supply more than
50 children at present.
The advantages of the system as adopted in Finsbury may be
said to be in the main the following:—
1. The Depot is carried on by a voluntary society and not out
of the municipal rates. Whether it is wise or equitable to
carry on such a Depot out of the rates is not here discussed,