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42
The effort for advancement, the will and the desire for improvement
must emanate from the individual.
On the other hand the number of mothers insufficiently fed,
deserted, ill, or working in workshops, or at home as outworkers
shows that there is in these poorest homes another and a more
acutely pressing and insistent trouble.
Mothers who are not supported by their husbands, mothers who
have to work hard to keep the home together, cannot reasonably be
expected to rear healthy, sturdy and smiling infants. It must
sooner or later be realised that in these poor homes the successful
upbringing of children is largely, if not chiefly, an industrial
problem and only, possibly, in the second instance a matter of
public health and education. Public health measures are only
palliative ; the problem is that of the prevention of poverty.
MIDWIVES ACT, 1902.
In London this Act is administered by the London County
Council as the Local Supervising Authority. In 1911, twenty
midwives resident in Finsbury gave notice of their intention to
practise. The following institutions train and educate midwives
for work in the Borough :—
The City of London Lying-in Hospital, City Road.
The Maternity Nursing Association, 63, Myddelton Square.
The Royal Maternity Charity, 31, Finsbury Square.
The Royal Free Hospital, Gray's Inn Road.
In addition to the above, the medical Students of St. Bartholomew's
Hospital and the lady medical students of the Royal Free
Hospital attend Finsbury mothers, under the supervision of
qualified resident medical officers.
PUERPERAL FEVER.
This disease is compulsorily notifiable by Section 55 of the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891. In 1911, there were 4
notifications and 3 deaths.