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voluntary workers. The best results in this important field of
public health work are only to be attained by the provision of an
adequate supply of specially trained Health Visitors, selected with
due regard to their tact and industry in carrying out their delicate
and important duties. This is a combination which my experience
shows is difficult to obtain amongst voluntary workers.
What is required, therefore, is greater facilities being given
to Sanitary Authorities to develop their infant mortality work on
lines which would enable them to do so while not overburdening
their finances. While much attention has been given by most
urban authorities to the protection of infants under one year old,
and excellent results have been attained, there is room for improvement
in regard to the facilities at their disposal. Moreover, any
extension of facilities given to them by Parliament in this vitally
important and necessary work should have regard to provision for
children up to school age. No statutory provision has so far been
made to bridge over the interval between children between one
year old and school age (in this country five years)—an unsatisfactory
state of things which should promptly be adjusted.
It is to be hoped that Sanitary Authorities will shortly be
given powers to enable them to organise their infant welfare work
on lines which would enable them to co-ordinate the efforts of
voluntary and philanthropic agencies working in the same direction.
Much greater results would thereby be obtained, and the
development of schemes which would place all such work on a
satisfactory basis, and which would extend the scope of the work
so as to include children up to school age and under the direct
supervision of the Public Health Authorities is badly needed.
Infants Milk Depot.
During 1913, the number of infants fed from the Council's
Milk Dep6t was 401, as compared with 400 in 1912. Of this
number, all but one were resident in Battersea, the exception being
a baby resident in an adjoining Borough.
The age at which these children commenced taking the milk
and the length of time fed are shown in the following table:—