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244
for, the requirements " of the Act " relating to the registration
of Births " and it applies to any child born after the
twenty-eighth week of pregnancy, whether alive or dead."
Liability to a penalty not exceeding twenty shillings is incurred
by any person who fails to give notice of a birth.
The necessary resolution will, I am sure, be readily
passed in view of the previous action of the Borough Council
as far as the Borough of Battersea is concerned.
The Council have already given the required Statutory
Notice of not less than one calendar month.
All sanitarians are agreed that this early information will
be of the greatest value in helping Sanitary Authorities to
deal with the question of Infantile Mortality. It will
materially increase the present success which has attended the
Council's efforts in connection with their Infants' Milk Depot.
The Council have already adopted the report of the Health
Committee suggesting the appointment of a Health Visitor,
whose work will be connected with, and entirely depend upon,
this early information of births obtainable under the Notification
of Births Act, 1907, and in this connection it is
satisfactory to note that the London County Council propose
to include a clause in their General Powers Bill for the Session
of 1908 to enable the Council to repay to the Metropolitan
Borough Councils a moiety of the salaries of Health Visitors
as they now repay half the salaries of Sanitary Inspectors.
In the opinion of some it is perhaps to be regretted that
the suggested provision exempting medical men was, at the
last moment, dropped by the promoters of the Bill, but I am
of opinion that the Act will not be in any way irksome or
derogatory to the medical practitioners throughout the
Borough, who are at all times anxious to assist the Borough
Council and its Officers to protect the public health.
(Signed) G. Quin Lennane,
Medical Officer of Health