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99
APPENDIX.
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Hackney, N.E.
27th October, 1908.
To the Chairman and Members
of the Public Health Committee.
INFANT MORTALITY AND THE NOTIFICATION OF
BIRTHS ACT.
Gentlemen,
In considering the question of the adoption of the Notification
of Births Act certain facts should be remembered, viz.:—
1. That the infant mortality is high in the Borough of Hackney.
2. That the measures hitherto taken to preserve the public
health have not had any appreciable influence in lessening
the infant mortality.
3. The main cause of the prevailing high infant mortality is
improper feeding and care during the early months of
life, which must be attributed largely to ignorance and
carelessness on the part of those having the care of infants.
4. The local authority as the Public Health Authority of the
Borough has a duty cast upon it to do everything in its
power to lessen this mortality.
The Notification of Births Act was passed with the object of
giving local authorities an opportunity of obtaining information of
births within thirty-six hours of their occurrence. It is recognised
that such knowledge is requisite if anything material is to be done
to prevent infant deaths in the early months. At present I receive
weekly copies of the registrations of births from the Registrars
of births in the Borough; but many of these births are not
registered until some weeks after the births have actually occurred.
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