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55
It is to be noted that these infantile mortality rates are uncorrected,
and as Waterloo Road and Lambeth Church Second Districts
contain respectively a Lying-in Hospital and a Workhouse,
the rates (as given above) are deceiving, being much too small.
If the necessary correction be made, i.e, by excluding from Waterloo
Road District all the Lying-in Hospital births, and from Lambeth
Church Second District all the Workhouse births, the rates become
236 and 185 per 10 0 births respectively. In other words, the
average infantile mortality rate for the Inner Districts is 219 per
1,000 births as compared with 131 per 1,000 births for the Outer
Districts. Special attention is, therefore, needed for the former,
and it will be seen that Waterloo Road and Lambeth Church First
Districts suffer most severely, viz., 80 per cent. more than the
Outer Districts, taken as a whole, and 100 per cent more than
(say) Norwood District. In other words, the chance of an infant
under one year of age who lives in Norwood District celebrating
its first birthday is double that of an infant living in Waterloo
Road District.
Examining more in detail the causes of these deaths in infants
under one year of age, it is found that the greatest number is due
to irregular and improper feeding. Mothers will not, or cannot,
do their duty by their infants in regard to feeding, and the alternative
methods adopted are unsuitable, as well as irregular, and,
therefore, totally opposed to what nature not only dictates and
requires, but must have if infants are to prosper. Maternal ignorance
or carelessness, drunkenness, overcrowding, insanitary
conditions, female labour, etc., are also factors that assist in making
up this high mortality. Epidemic or Zymotic Diarrhoea alone (the
so-called "Summer" Diarrhoea of children) carries off yearly in
Lambeth an average of 160 infants, the Inner Districts suffering
in this respect twice as much as the Outer. Since the appointment
of the Female Inspector, special investigations have been made in
regard to deaths from Diarrhœa, and the one fact that stands out
prominently is that breast feeding is rapidly becoming a thing of
the past, and that irregular and improper feeding of infants (the
result of too early weming or hand-feeding) causes digestive disorders,
and predisposes to death from Diarrhoea, as well as from
other infantile diseases.
Condensed milk (separated and other), sopped bread or biscuit,
other farinaceous foods of different kinds, "ordinary" food, beeftea,
meat. alcohol, tea, etc., are found to be given to Children of
tender years by parents and others. Even when good cow's milk
is used, the insanitary conditions under which such milk is, in
many cases, collected and stored prior to use, are such as to ensure
at times its contamination with dirt, and (may be) germs, thereby
causing digestive troubles and Diarrhœa.