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During the time the Act has been in force it has worked very
smoothly. At first there was a certain amount of delay on the
part of certain parties in sending in notifications. In these cases
the father was written to and an explanation called for. In most
cases the excuse offered was ignorance of the existence of the
necessity to notify.
As a result of comparison with the returns of the registrars, a
comparison which is carried out regularly, since by the Act these
officials are to be allowed access to the notification lists, persons
failing to notify have been readily traced. To these a printed
form has been sent, and has never failed to induce defaulters to
notify. In the later months of the year the number of failures
was comparatively few, and, doubtless, as the Act becomes better
known, and the medical men and mid-wives get into the habit of
calling attention to the necessity for notifying, the number of
notifications received after the expiry of the statutory period of
36 hours from birth will be greatly reduced.
During the period under review, no prosecutions were instituted
as it was thought inadvisable to take extreme measures till the
Act was better known. One interesting effect of the adoption of
the Act has been a reduction in the number of the parents who
delay registration of births till near the end of the six weeks
allowed for this.
The number of notifications received between March 9th and
December 31st was 2,953. Of these 1,491 were males and 1,462
females, and there were 74 still - births. Two notifications were
of triplets, and 35 of twins. Of the births, 652 were notified from
the City of London Lying-in Hospital, 532 or 81∙6 per cent. belonging
to other Boroughs.
The percentage notified by parents was 16.9; by medical men,
3.5; by mid-wives, 11.4; and by other persons (professional
assistants, etc.), 68.0.
INVESTIGATIONS IN CONNECTION WITH BIRTHS. Up till
the coming into force of the Notification of Births Act, the visits
paid by the women inspectors in connection with births were made
mainly after the receipt of the information supplied by the