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81
would die in any case, but are kept alive by care and
comfort until some influence in their surroundings
proves too much for them.
Of course, illness is often invited by careless and
dirty habits, but much might perhaps be prevented if
the streets and roads (especially side streets and courts)
could be swept while wet. Last summer the
experiment was to have been tried in a portion of the
Borough, but owing to various exceptional circumstances
it fell through. Dry sweeping raises clouds of
germ-laden dust, which enters the houses, settles on
food, and is swallowed by the people. Proper food
storage is non-existent in many of the smaller houses,
and food that is unconsumed is left about on tables and
open shelves, while cooking and feeding utensils are
often uncleansed and exposed to dust and flies, and are
used again and again without washing.
Then, too, although it is only very occasionally
that there is reason to believe that the existent poverty
and distress are due to indulgence in drink (at least, on
the part of the mother) indubitably the amount many
mothers do take is sufficient to affect their infants
unfavourably. It is quite usual for nursing mothers
to take stout under the impression that it increases the
milk supply, and even most temperate women will at
that time take from one to two pints per day, if they
can afford it.
One other point urgently requires notice. During
last summer three illegitimate babies left in the care
of the mothers' relatives were, I am absolutely certain,
not only allowed, but assisted to catch summer