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37
Notwithstanding that the death rate among the infants on
the Depot register was slightly higher than in 1907, the results
obtained during 1908 are in the main very satisfactory. Not the
least interesting feature of the work was the high percentage of
attendances at the weighing room of babies fed on the milk, thus
enabling effective supervision to be exercised over the majority of
the infants on the Depot register. Of the 632 infants admitted
to the Depot, 407 were brought to the weighing room to be
weighed periodically during the year, and 3,029 weights were
recorded. In addition, 361 weights were taken of 180 babies not
on the Borough Council milk. This is a most useful adjunct to
the work of the Milk Depot, and possesses a high educational
value. Much credit is due to Miss Moss for the success she has
been able to attain, in. inducing so many of the mothers to bring
their babies once a week or fortnight for this purpose.
It is to be hoped that in the new milk Bill which the President
of the Local Government Board has promised to introduce
into Parliament during the present Session, provision will be
made to enable Sanitary Authorities to legally establish Infant
Milk Depots. The success which has attended the Council's
Infant Milk Depot for the last eight years, as a glance at the
chart on page 23, relating to infant mortality in the Borough
since its establishment, will confirm, should, under such legislative
authority, encourage the Council to develop this admirable little
institution, which I am convinced has to a considerable extent at
least been instrumental, both directly and indirectly, in reducing
the infantile mortality in Battersea from 163 per 1,000 in 1901 to
107 per 1,000 in 1908.
The summary of work carried on in connection with the
Infants' Milk Depot during 1908 is as follows:—
Visits paid by Health Visitor to homes of infants
admitted to Milk Depot 1,101
Attendances of Health Visitor at weighing room 98
Number of infants attending weighing room 407
Weights registered 3,029
Number of infants under observation at home 102