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(2). Notice under this section shall be given by posting a
prepaid letter or postcard addressed to the Medical Officer of Health
at his Office or Residence, giving the necessary information of the
birth within thirty-six hours after the birth, or by delivering a
written notice of the birth at the Office or Residence of the Medical
Officer within the same time; and the Local Authority shall supply
without charge addressed and stamped postcards containing the
form of notice to any Medical Practitioner or Midwife residing or
practising in their area, who applies for the same.
(3). Any person who fails to give notice of a birth in accordance
with this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty
not exceeding twenty shillings: Provided that a person shall not be
liable to a penalty under this provision if he satisfies the court that
he had reasonable grounds to believe that notice had been duly given
by some other person.
(4). The notification required to be made under this Act shall
be in addition to and not in substitution for the requirements of
any Act relating to the registration of births; and any registrar of
births and deaths whose sub-district or any part thereof is situate
within any area in which this Act is adopted shall at all reasonable
times have access to notices of births received by the Medical
Officer of Health under this Act, or to any book in which those
notices may be recorded, for the purpose of obtaining information
concerning births which may have occurred in his sub-district.
(5). This section shall apply to any child which has issued forth
from its mother after the expiration of the twenty-eighth week of
pregnancy, whether alive or dead.
The relation of the industrial employment of married women to
infantile mortality is a question that has been much discussed of
late years. At one time it was thought that the employment of
married women in factories and workshops was a very important
cause of infantile mortality, but the evidence that has so far been
adduced in support of this view is far from conclusive, and there is
now a tendency to regard the industrial employment of married
women as but a minor factor in the causation of infantile mortality.
During 1907, the Home Secretary took steps to elicit some adequate
information on this subject, and on November 6th, Mr. Herbert
Samuel, M.P., held a conference at the Home Office with a large
number of Medical Officers of Health, when the whole question was
discussed from various points of view. At this conference it was
decided to institute an enquiry on definite lines in certain districts,