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68
General Observations.—In discussing the infant mortality
in Finsbury, there are certain facts which must be borne in mind.
Finsbury is the most crowded borough in London. It lies on
the outskirts of the City of London, and its houses are being slowly
but surely converted into warehouses and workshops. The changc
creates in the vicinity of the demolished sites a zone of crowding
and congestion. The hospitals and philanthropic institutions
which lie in and near its borders attract into the district the poor,
the destitute, the sick and ailing—who are, from a public health
standpoint, most undesirable citizens. Finsbury is a happy hunting-ground
for the amateur philanthropist. Rents are comparatively
high; wages are low. The unskilled labourer and the casual
labourer are in much demand. Most of the women, a large proportion
of the mothers are wage-earners in factories, workshops,
or as out-workers. The deaths that occurred in 1914, and the
families affected, were specially investigated
Only 37 per cent. of the babies were totally breast-fed; the rest
were partially or wholly bottle-fed. Nine per cent. used the condemned
bottle with a long tube. Nearly all the infants were using
or had used the comforter or dummy teat. Eleven per cent. were
insufficiently fed—27 per cent. were being fed at irregular times
by young girls and other inexperienced nurses who had been left
in charge of the children owing to the mother's absence. In
43 per cent. the infants were weaned during the hot summer
months, in spite of persistent teaching to the contrary. Seventy
per cent. of the babies slept at night with their parents; 14 per
cent. were insufficiently clad. Six per cent. of the mothers had
insufficient clothes; 14 per cent. were being inadequately fed. In
20 per cent. of the families the mother was the usual breadwinner
and supported the husband and the rest of the family.
Thirty-five per cent. of all the mothers under review were engaged
in employment during the illnesses which preceded the deaths of
their children, chiefly as charwomen, laundresses, machinists, boxmakers,
makers of artificial flowers, street hawkers, dressmakers
and homeworkers. The mothers stated they worked for various
reasons: because they had no other means of support, because
their husbands' earnings were small and insufficient, because they
were not supported by their husbands, because thic husband's