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39
some more recent decisions in the Marylebone Police Court have
demonstrated that fresh legislation will be necessary before the
matter can be dealt with effectively.
The London County Council's General Powers Bill now before
Parliament contains provisions which, if passed, will materially
strengthen the powers of sanitary authorities to enforce the provision
of adequate water supply in tenement houses.
Another serious defect in most tenement houses is the fact that
no proper provision is made for food storage; but here again
without further legislation the Sanitary Authority can take no
effective action.
The regular, frequent and systematic supervision, and consequent
cleansing, of tenement houses under the bye-laws relating to houses
let in lodgings is, in my opinion, an important factor in the
prevention of infantile mortality. There are in Hampstead some
1000 houses which require such supervision. With the present staff,
however, it is impossible to carry out an adequate system of
inspection.
(B) But although unwholesome surroundings play an important
part in the causation of infantile mortality, a much more important
factor is defective "mothering." Whether any given infant will
survive to attain his first birthday depends above all things on the
care and attention that is bestowed upon him. In the poorer
districts, infants often do not receive proper care, not, however,
because the mother is careless, but because she does not possess the
necessary knowledge of infant life or the necessary facilities for
infant management. It might be thought that it is not the business
of a Sanitary Authority to teach mothers how to look after their
children, but, as a matter of fact, all over the country ihe public
health work of the municipality has very definitely been extended so
as to include not only the hygiene of the environment, but also the
hygiene of the person, and the education of mothers in the feeding
and general care of infants has become part of the ordinary routine
work of the municipal health department. Educational work of
this kind is carried out by the distribution of advisory literature and
by the domiciliary visitation of lady inspectors and health visitors.
Both these methods have been employed in Hampstead for some
time.