View report page

diminished vigour, but in spite of the weighty opinions expressed in
its favour the practical results do not appear to me to bear them out.
DEATHS UNDER ONE YEAR FROM ALL CAUSES PER 1,000 Births.
Borough.
1906.
1907.
1908.
1909.
1910.
1911.
1912.
1913.
1914.
1915.
Year in
which
Health
Visitor was
appointed.
83
106
99
103
115
104
100
94
Camberwell
130
109
111
Bermondsey
Bethnal Green
Hammersmith
Hampstead
Kensington
Lambeth
Woolwich
153
123
144
138
126
156
151
146
78
132
123
97
1909
132
148
125
155
138
129
123
96
137
122
1906
132
118
138
117
120
120
99
90
103
94
101
78
1905
73
77
69
69
75
60
62
80
1909
132
106
117
105
128
119
113
91
112
94
1906
131
120
104
109
94
86
102
104
1907
109
112
94
82
85
73
79
85
93
1906
The above table is a continuation of those in previous years.
In spite of being held up even by members of its own household as
an awful example of boroughs that have not appointed health
visitors, and to whom the Local Government Board are asked to
apply their powers to compel such appointment, Camberwell seems
to have done just as well, if not better, than many other boroughs;
compared with last year our relative position has improved in the
list of London boroughs.
The Schools for Mothers have strong claims to be reckoned
among the chief means in attempting to bring about a diminution in
the mortality. They are voluntary—which means that they have
the advantage of being run by those who take up the work for the
love of it, and who will take a personal interest in all those who
come within its ken. They also escape the drawback of paying
visits to all, without discriminating between those who need such
help and those who do not, limiting them instead to those who
are sufficiently concerned in the matter to come of their own
initiation to learn things which will practically benefit themselves
and their children ; and even in the apparently hopeless class the
voluntary worker has a better chance of success, small though it is,
than a paid official.
The Board of Education will provide up to 50 per cent, of the
cost of these schools, but this is not enough for the poorer districts,
where funds are low, but where willing workers exist, and there are
mothers ready enough to pay a small sum to attend, thereby gaining
a feeling of responsibility as well as receiving profitable advice.
There was an increase in the ordinary form of meningitis of
five more deaths than last year. The deaths from convulsions
were just half, some of the decrease perhaps being due to the
inclusion of fatal cases among the other diseases of which they are
often only a symptom. When we come to the deaths of respiratory