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Mother's Work.— Well over 50 per cent. of the mothers did
no work apart from house-work. Only 26—or 11.7 per cent.—
worked away from home. Some of the employed mothers, it is
found, can, and do, leave their work during the day in order to
return home and feed their children. In Finsbury, at least, it
seems to be the exception, rather than the rule, for the mothers
to work after the birth of the child. A certain number are driven,
by such a necessity as the death of the husband, to do so.
Home Conditions,—Of the homes examined, 27—or 12 per
cent.—were dirty; 94—or 42 per cent.—were fairly clean; and
the remainder, 100—or 48 per cent.—clean. The majority of the
homes (77 per cent.) had only one or two rooms.
The figures examined year by year are exceedingly small, and a
certain amount of caution is necessary in basing conclusions upon
them. In order to overcome this difficulty, the data for the past
5 years have been put together and the results tabulated in
Table O.
The number of deaths in that time amounts to 1,560, and it may
be noted here that, taking even this comparatively large number,
the results of the analysis bring out the same facts, viz.—(1) The
bulk of the children who die are such as have been artificially fed;
this is especially the case in those dying of diarrhoea and of wasting
conditions (the percentage of the total number of children breastfed
is 34.5; the figures for diarrhoea and wasting being 12 and 25
per cent. respectively). (2) Premature children are, in the majority
of instances, the offspring of unhealthy mothers. (3) Most deaths
occur amongst the children of parents occupying one or two
roomed tenements. (In, 31 per cent. one room, and in 43 per cent.
two rooms, were occupied.) (4) Most of the mothers of the dead
children had no occupation taking them away from home. (5) The
majority of the children who died of suffocation—72 out of 99—
were breast-fed children. The majority of the mothers of these
children were careless, as was shown by the fact that only in 44 of
the 99 was the house clean. The sleeping accommodation was also
probably limited, as 78 of the deaths occurred in one or two-roomed
tenements.