London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Finsbury 1904
Report on the public health of Finsbury 1904 including annual report on factories and workshops
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The facts concerning the relationship between seasonal conditions and diarrhoeal deaths in the summer quarter of the present year (1904) may be tabulated as follows :—
| Summer Quarter, 1904. | July. | August. | September. 1 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I Dates of months 1 (in weeks). | 3-9 | 10- l6 | 17- 23 | 24- 30 | 31-6 July | 7-13 | 14- 20 | 21- 27 | 28-3 Sept | 4-10 | 11-17 | 18- 24 | 25- 30 |
| Mean temperature. Four-foot thermometer. | 56 .1 | 57.4 | 58.9 | 59.7 | 60.3 | 60. 9 | 60.6 | 59.9 | 59.6 | 59.4 | 58.8 | 57.9 | 57. 0 |
| Rainfall (4.88 in.) | 0.22 | 0.01 | 0.04 | 1.83 | 0.08 | 0. 06 | 0. 47 | 0.22 | 1.01 | 0.36 | 0.24 | 0.20 | 0.14 |
| 1 No. of deaths 1 from Epidemic 1 Diarrhœa. (95) | 2 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 18 | 15 | 15 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
(b) Relation to methods of Feeding.
An enquiry has been made into each of the fatal cases of
diarrhœa with a view of obtaining information as to surroundings
and method of feeding. In 82 cases out of the 95 the following
facts have been obtained :—
Breast-fed only 11 or 13.4 per cent.
Cows'milk only 22 or 26.8 „
Condensed milk only 14 or 17. 0 „
Breast-fed and cows' milk 13 or 15.9 „
Breast-fed and condensed milk 10 or 12.2 ,,
Cows1 milk and condensed milk 12 or 14.6
82 100.0
That is to say, 86 per cent, of the children under one year dying
of epidemic diarrhœa in Finsbury, in the third quarter of 1904,
were fed on cows' milk or condensed milk, or in other words, upon
milk which might be, and in fact is, liable to great contamination.
There can be no doubt in the mind of anyone who knows how the