View report page

33
children under one year of age—two mothers had lost 6 such
children, one mother had lost 5 babies, six had lost 4 children, and
13 mothers had had 3 infant deaths.
Counting in older children over one year of age, one mother had
lost 8 children, one had lost 7, four had lost 6 children,
and three had lost 5 children. Reviewing the above facts—
the large number of mothers in delicate health, insufficiently
fed, ill, and deserted, results for which the mother is not to blame,
and the numerous slovenly mothers personally and domestically
dirty, with sore and dirty breasts, matters for which the mother is
directly responsible, demonstrate the terrible odds with which
their infants have to contend during the early months of existence.
And, unfortunately, this personal filth and this domestic nastiness
are evils which public health measures are almost powerless to
amend or to abate. Further, the many mothers, who had already
lost their young ones in previous years, shows the heavy toil that
is paid in infant life for this noisome carelessness, and personal
uncleanliness.
In this connection it is interesting to note that when an infant
dies, it appears to be a source cf satisfaction to the parents to say
that they took the child to four or five hospitals, to a couple of
dispensaries, and to three or more medical men. They then feel
that they have done the best they can. In some cases the treatment
advised by these various institutions is not carried out at
home, and the medicines are not administered. In appraising
these results, it must be remembered that they refer exclusively to
the very poorest parts of the Borough—they must not be taken to
apply to Finsbury as a whole.
Illustrative examples.—
1. A mother had had nine children; only three were now alive.
The other six had died from convulsions after passing their
twelfth month. The mother seemed to be proud of this fact, and
said, "You see I have brought them all up to their twelfth month."
2. A mother and her children were in bed at mid-day because
" there was nothing to get up for."