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Action taken.—The Public Health Department supplies some
details at cost price to mothers, gratis to poor mothers, e.g. lubeless
milk bottles, special rubber teats, milk jug covers, bristle
brushes for milk bottles, "Finsbury cream," woollen vests, and
pneumonia jackets.
The vests are knitted by school children in the district, by the
kindness and courtesy of the head-teachers.
A small book on the management of children is left with each
mother, and its use explained. An invitation is given to her to
attend the weighing centres and have her baby weighed
regularly.
Special attention is paid to the abatement of certain matters
which may react adversely upon the progress of the infant—
phthisis, overcrowding, domestic dirt, house refuse disposal, the
condition of the gullies and the water-closets.
Definite instruction is given as to the best feeding, clothing, and
washing of the child. Mothers who are ill are referred to their
own doctor, or tickets are given available at hospitals or dispensaries.
Mothers who are poor are directed to the various religious and
philanthropic institutions, and occasionally in urgent cases to the
poor law authorities, who have on every occasion proferred ready
help.
Summary — the problem stated.—The present enquiry
showed that amongst the very poorest households in the borough
many mothers and their children were personally dirty, clad in
dirty clothes, and living in domestically dirty and squalid surroundings.
For these matters, though education, sympathy, moral suasion,
willing help and better housing may do much, yet in the end the
appeal must be a personal one.
Fresh public health legislation in bulk will not cleanse the
bodies of the unclean, or remove the grime from their clothes.