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24
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
number of first visits totalled 3,862, re-visits 2,889, and ineffectual
visits 1,461.
"142 visits were paid to houses to see to the carrying out of
repairs, etc., for which we had previously served notices.
"At the first visit 3,172 infants were wholly breast fed. Of
the remaining 690, 268 were breast-fed supplemented by artificial
feeding, 160 were fed on cows' milk only, 124 on condensed milk
only, 61 on dried milk, and one on goats' milk. Of the 2,889
infants re-visited, 1,806 were entirely breast-fed, and of the remaining
1,083, cows', condensed, or dried milks, or farinaceous
foods were given in addition to the breast in 434 eases, 231 were
fed on cows' milk only, 125 on condensed milk, and 80 on dried
milk.
"In 1.238 cases boat bottles were used, in only 25 cases the
long tubed bottles; 47 infants were spoon fed, and four were cup
fed.
" 117 of the infants visited, died during the year, the ages at
death being shown in Table XXI. It will be seen that the
greatest mortality occurred during the first four months of life,
73, more than half the total, having died before reaching the age
of four months. 28 infants died from diarrhoea and enteritis,
four from intestinal toxæmia, three from ileo-colitis, 26 from
bronchitis and pneumonia, five from whooping-cough, 10 from
marasmus, eight from atrophy, five from prematurity (of whom
two were twins), four from convulsions, three from debility from
birth, six from gastric and stomach troubles, four from meningitis
two from malnutrition, and the remaining nine from various
complaints.
"Man} infants died from prematurity previous to our first
visit. 133 of those visited were prematurely born, and 62 were
delicate from birth. 59 twin births were visited and one set of
triplets.
With regard to the employment of midwives, 1,891 of the
3,862 mothers visited had employed their services. Eight had
been attended by un-registered midwives, the excuse in every case
being that they were called in in an emergency.