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228
It will be seen that, excluding the 36 who did not live long
enough to take any food. 178 infants or 55 per cent. were fed
artificially, and in the cases of Diarrhœa and Marasmus the percentage
is much higher, 77 per cent. of the deaths from the former
cause and 65 per cent. of the latter cause occurring among bottlefed
infants. Scrupulous care and cleanliness are required successfully
to rear such children, but it was found that in the cases of
deaths from Diarrhœa 20 per cent., and in the cases of deaths from
Marasmus no less than 34 per cent. of the tenements were dirty.
The importance of a pure and clean milk supply for such infants,
as can now be obtained at the Milk Depot in Goswell Road, cannot
be over estimated. The difficulty is to make the mothers realise
this fact. Of the 17 deaths from suffocation 47 per cent. occurred
between Saturday night and Monday morning; the table shows
that this fatality occurs much more frequently with breast-fed than
bottle-fed children. On enquiry many of the mothers admitted
their habit of "giving the breast" at night lying down. They
frequently fall asleep during the process, sometimes with fatal
results to the infant.
In the column of the table headed "Mother's Work," "no occupation"
indicates that the mother has not worked since the birth of the
deceased child, except in the cases of prematurity, when the occupation
of the mother during the previous year is recorded.
That poverty is a very important factor in the high infant death
rate in the Borough is shown by the fact that 90 per cent. of the
deaths occurred in one, two and three-roomed tenements. Associated
with poverty one finds overcrowding, lack of fresh air, and generally
unhealthy conditions, which, together with ignorance and neglect
have a very disastrous effect on infant life.