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25
The deaths of children under one year of age, in Hampstead, though
small in comparison with most of the other Metropolitan Boroughs, are
sufficiently numerous to call for special notice.
No less than 126, or 71 per cent. of the total deaths under 5 years
of age occurred in children who did not attain the age of twelve months.
The following is a summary of the results of an investigation
conducted by Inspector Mrs. Fisher into the circumstances attending
infant deaths during the year.
81 deaths were investigated, the remaining 45 being cases in which
either no evidence was available or in which it was not considered
necessary to institute enquiries.
In 28 instances the children had been nursed by the mother, in
33 they had been hand fed, in 14 partly nursed and partly hand fed;
while in the case of 6 premature infants neither method was practicable.
Of the 18 deaths amongst children under one year from such causes
as Epidemic Diarrhœa, Diarrhœa (simple), and Marasmus, it was ascertained
that in 15 cases the method of feeding was by spoon or bottle.
Following upon the above investigation, an inspection was made of
the sanitary conditions of the dwellings, and in 40 instances defects
were discovered and ultimately remedied.
Overcrowding was found to exist in 12 cases, due in the majority to
an unnecessary and faulty arrangement of the sleeping accommodation.
From Mrs. Fisher's investigations, it appears that while there exists
a lamentable ignorance on the part of many mothers of household
hygiene and infant feeding, it is equally evident that in many of the
homes of the working classes the facilities for the safe storage of such
an article of food so susceptible to contamination as milk, are practically
wanting.
I have in many instances reported that various houses in the
Borough were in my opinion uninhabitable, and by no means the least
of my reasons for so doing has been the absolutely bad internal
arrangement of these houses, which of necessity exposed the family food
to contamination of one kind or another.