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56
that year by year increasing evidence is obtained in support of the
view that much of the epidemic diarrhoea of urban communities is
derived from the consumption of polluted milk. Reference was
made to this matter in my reports for 1902-4. During 1905
we have carried out further enquiry into the conditions of life
obtaining in relation to 374 infant deaths; 77 of these deaths
were due to epidemic diarrhoea, and the feeding of 70 of these
cases has been investigated on the same lines as in previous years
when 301 deaths from this disease were investigated. It is thus
possible to give the results of enquiry into 371 cases of fatal
diarrhoea of infants. The return (1902-5) is as follows:—
Age in
months.
Human
Milk.
Artificial or
Condensed
Milk.
Human
and
Artificial.
Cows' Milk.
Human
and Cows'.
Totals.
0-3 26 23 11 39 19 118
4-6 18 32 13 38 13 114
7-9 11 21 13 30 14 89
10-12 13 13 3 13 8 50
Totals 68 89 40 120 54 371
From these figures it will be seen that:—
68 or 18.3 per cent, were breast fed.
129 or 34.7 per cent, were fed wholly or partly on
artificial milks.
174 or 46.8 per cent, were fed wholly or partly on
cows' milk.
That is to say that 82 per cent, of the children under one year
of age dying of epidemic diarrhœa in Finsbury from 1902 to 1905
were fed on artificial or cows' milk, or in other words, upon milk
which might be, and in fact is, liable to great contamination. The
evidence which is obtainable for 1905 is therefore in no way
exceptional, and only bears out the findings of three years.