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1905] 38
There is no problem which at the present time is engaging the attention
of Sanitary Authorities so much as the prevention of deaths among children,
especially amongst infants in the very earliest days of their life. Hitherto no
special effort has been made in this direction in Islington, and indeed it was
not required here so much as in the large towns and in some other of the
London districts, for it cannot be said that the infantile mortality in Islington
when compared with that of the Country, the Great Towns, and the other
London Boroughs, was excessive. Indeed, the contrary is the case, for as the
writer has shown for several years past, it has been most satisfactory. Nevertheless
it is quite possible, by educating parents, and especially young mothers,
to reduce even the low mortality experienced in Islington.
The methods usually adopted are to place in the hands of mothers short
directions as to the feeding, care and rearing of their infants, and to supplement
these directions by visits of Health Visitors, who are women thoroughly conversant
with these matters.
Another practice adopted in a few places has been the establishment of
depots for specially prepared milk, for undoubtedly dirty or unsound milk plays
a large part in infantile mortality. It is, however, an arguable point whether
such establishments should be supported out of the rates or be conducted by
private enterprise. There is much to be said in support of each contention,
and as this matter will in all probability receive consideration in a special
report, it is not proposed to discuss it now. Suffice it to say that in Islington
it would require to be on a scale much larger than any hitherto adopted in
the metropolis, and would probably involve the purchase of a Dairy Farm in
the country, or else the subsidising of one, for it goes without saying that the
place from which the milk would come should be conducted on the most
perfect sanitary lines, as otherwise there would be a danger of the supply
not being as pure and satisfactory in other directions as it should be.