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46
Taken as a whole, the year's work at the Milk Depot
has been very satisfactory. The value of supplying a pure
modified milk to infants of the poor, who otherwise would
have had to depend on the frequently contaminated article
which is retailed under circumstances which invite contamination,
or on tinned milk or other unsatisfactory substitute, is
sufficiently borne out in the low death-rate amongst the Depotfed
children, and by the constant support which it has received
from the medical practitioners of the district, who send by far
the greater number of customers.
Scarcely less important than the intrinsic value of the
supply of a pure modified milk for hand-fed babies, is the
value, as an educational institute for the teaching of infant
feeding, of the Milk Depot. In addition to the visits of the
Health Visitor to the homes of these infants, the attendance
of the mothers at the weighing room once a week or fortnight,
to see their infants weighed, and to note the progress made,
is of great educational value. Much good work has been
accomplished in this manner, which must necessarily bear good
fruit in the future. Personally, I am inclined to view this
aspect of the Depot as even more valuable than the actual
supplying of the milk. The amount of interest shown by the
mothers is evident from the very large weekly attendances at
the Milk Clinic. In this way, i.e., by practical demonstration
and instruction in the feeding and management of infants, the
maximum results are obtained.
It has frequently been alleged that sterilised milk predisposes
to rickets in those infants fed on it. There may be
theoretically some ground for this assertion, but practical
experience amongst the infants fed at the Battersea Infants'
Milk Depot does not support it. I have kept careful observation
of many infants who on admission to the Milk Depot were
suffering from rickets, but in only two instances did the condition
become worse during the time these two children were
using sterilised milk. If am inclined to think, therefore, that
the risk, if any, is greatly exaggerated; and, so far as my own
experience goes, I cannot find that any harmful effects ever