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31
NOTIFICATION OF BIRTHS ACT, 1907.
The total number of births registered in Bethnal
Green during 1910 was 4,040. Only 3,859 births were
properly reported to me on the post cards supplied to
doctors, midwives and hospitals, but as this number
includes 116 still births, which are not registerable,
some six or seven per cent of the births last year were
not notified, and the law was disobeyed to this extent.
When the Act first came into operation I requested
the Public Health Committee to sanction the supply
by the Local Registrars of weekly lists of births, but
this was refused on the ground of expense, some £30
per annum. In the absence of the particulars contained
in these lists I am unable to identify the defaulters, but
the district registrars from time to time examine my
records, and have on several occasions supplied me
with lists of some of these. By the direction of the
Public Health Committee the parent or guardian in
each case was written to or visited ; in most instances
lapse of memory or ignorance of the law was pleaded
as an excuse, but several of the addresses as registered
were found to be incorrect. Further particulars as to
the working of the Act will be found in Miss Harris'
report.
Public Health Department,
Bethnal Green.
To the Medical Officer of Health.
Sir,
I have the honour to present to you a short
account of the work done by me in this Borough during
the year 1910.