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41
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
(Special Report presented to the Council on April 28th, 1904).
Much good work is being carried out in Lambeth Borough by
the Female Inspector, and special attention may be called to the
investigations in connection with deaths from infantile diarrhoea.
It is of great importance that every means should be taken to
lessen, if possible, the large infantile mortality that still takes
place in Lambeth (and elsewhere), due, in great part, to the
improper feeding of young children and infants. Taking the
1903 figures as an example, there were 9,069 births registered
as taking place in the Borough of Lambeth, whilst 1,194 infants
under 1 year of age, and 519 between the ages of 1 and 5, died
in the Borough during the same period, making a total of 1,713
deaths in children under 5 years of age; and of these 1,713
deaths, 157 are certified as due to diarrhoea. Taking the
Lambeth average infantile mortality rate as 150 per 1,000 births,
i.e., 15 per cent., it may be estimated that 1,36C of the 9,069
infants born will die before reaching the age of 12 months.
This is a serions mortality, and one that is, in part at least,
preventable; and, if preventable, whv not prevented.
Much good will accrue if the surroundings of the young
children and infants are examined, and the conditions under
which they pass the early years of their life kept sanitary and
wholesome. The mothers, too, often need guidance and
instruction. How can all this be best affected ? By the
employment of an extra Female Inspector. The Lambeth
Borough is too large in area to be efficiently worked by one
Female Inspector, and, whilst the present one (Miss Gamble) is
doing good work, there is, consequently, still room for another.
Miss Gamble finds her time more than fully occupied with the
inspection and re-inspection of workshops, workplaces, and
outworkers' rooms, together with the other routine duties that
fall to the lot of such an officer, leaving little or no time for the
equally important work of investigating all deaths under 1 year
of age, all deaths due to diarrhoea, all births, &c. Further, the
visiting of houses wherein cases of consumption are notified is a
duty eminently suited to a Female Inspector.
For these special duties, the Borough might be divided into
two divisions—the Inner and Outer Districts—each division to