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66
It will be remembered that upon the consideration of my tenth report for 1902, dealing
with the auestion of infantile mortality, referred by the Council to the Public Health Committee,
the Committee reported in favour of the proposal to establish a milk depot, as follows:—
"We are of opinion that it would be a desirable thing to establish in the Borough a
municipal supply of sterilised and humanised milk, for the feeding of children of the
poorer classes, in the hope that it might tend to the diminution of the excessive mortality
which does, without doubt, exist in a certain portion of North Kensington and they
recommended—
"That the Council do endorse the opinion above expressed, and that it be referred
back to the Committee to consider and report as to what steps should be taken to give
effect to the proposal."
The report was not adopted by the Council, possibly on the ground that they did not possess
legal power to establish a depot. It is to be desired that such discretionary power should be
possessed by sanitary authorities, as a means whereby the evil of an excessive rate of infantile
mortality may be combated.
MIDWIVES ACT.
The London County Council forwarded to the Council an extract from a report of their
Midwives Act Committee, and asked to be informed whether the Council would be prepared to
render any assistance under Section 77 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, where medical
practitioners are summoned by midwives in cases of difficulty or emergency, and are unable to
obtain payment of their fees ? I put myself in communication with the Clerk to the Guardians,
who informed me that the Board were proposing, in cases of proved emergency and destitution, to
apply to those cases the powers, conferred upon them by the provisions of the Poor Law Amendment
Act, 1848, "to pay for any medical or other assistance which shall be rendered to any
poor person on the happening of any accident, bodily casuality or sudden illness, although no
order shall have been given for the same by them or any of their officers."* The Public Health
Committee, therefore, were of opinion that no action was necessary on the part of the Council.
It may be mentioned that the County Council in their General Powers Bill now before Parliament,
are seeking power to pay fees for medical assistance in such cases of emergency.
VACCINATION.
The table at page 68 is a return respecting vaccination in Kensington in 1905, for which
I am indebted to Mr. King, the vaccination officer. It shows that out of 3,466 infants born, whose
births were returned in the "Birth List Sheets" (col. 2), during the year, 3,268 were successfully
vaccinated, and that 14 were returned as "insusceptible of vaccination." In 7 cases vaccination
was postponed by medical certificate; 317 infants died unvaccinated; in 20 cases infants were
removed to other districts, the vaccination officers of which were duly notified of the fact; whilst
156 cases, from "removal to places out of the parish, unknown, or which cannot be reached,
and cases not having been found," were unaccounted for. These cases are, with those of
"conscientious objectors" (37, against 46, 23 and 25 in the preceding three years respectively),
equivalent to a "loss" (i.e. cases not finally accounted for) of 5.8 per cent., as compared with the
number of births returned in the Birth List Sheets ; the loss in the preceding ten years having been
8.4, 9.0, 10.7, 10.1, 12.7, 8.1, 6.8, 7.6, 61 and 5.8 per cent. The returns compare favourably with
those for the Metropolis as a whole.
* The Local Government Board had expressed the view that the case of a medical practiticner who may have been
summoned by a midwife in a case of difficulty or emergency, might conceivably come within the section, and the Guardians
might then, if they wished, pay for the medical assistance required.