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Borough, and 23 per cent. of the cases were sent to the Depot by
St. Bartholomew's Hospital. It should be added that the children
admitted to the Depot are only such as belong to Finsbury.
The Depot was opened on November 23rd, 1904, and up to
November 22nd, 1905, 129 children had been entered on the books.
They belonged, with very few exceptions, to the poorer classes.
Twenty per cent. of the children came from homes of one room
only, and another 43 per cent. from two-roomed homes. So that
not less than 63 per cent. lived in homes of two rooms or less,
and very few indeed lived in homes of four rooms or more. It
may be taken, therefore, that the children came as a rule from
poor homes.
A second point of importance is that 75 per cent. of the children
admitted were ill at the time of admission, many of them were very
seriously ill, and some of them dying. It is obvious that healthy
children would not usually be introduced by medical men, who
sent fully 55 per cent. of the total number. But many of the
others were ill, under-fed and wasting, and the mothers sought the
Depot on that account. Previous to admission 58 per cent. of the
children had been fed on some form of cows' milk, and 42 per cent.
on condensed milk or artificial foods. In a number of cases the
child had had a little breast milk during the first few days of life.

Before mentioning some of the results of this milk feeding in
detail, it may be desirable to deal with two matters, namely, the