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and though I think one is justified in claiming some part of this
decrease as due to increased activity on the part of Sanitary
Authorities, one must be careful not to claim too much, or a disillusionment
might occur as a result of infectious epidemics
among children or a very hot summer increasing the illnesses
which usually cause such a high mortality among young babies.
There is no doubt in my mind that all this propaganda about
Child Welfare which has been going on during the last few years
s beginning to tell on the infantile mortality through the education
of the mothers, for, when all is said and done, one cannot
get over the fact that infantile mortality is much less among the
educated than among the uneducated classes, and, when the
latter come up to the standard of education of the mothers of the
better classes, we may expect a permanent and big reduction in
the infantile mortality. Writers on health matters are accustomed
to argue against this that some of the uneducated mothers
in certain districts, such as the West of Ireland and Scotland,
show a very low infantile mortality, but this is no doubt due to
favourable climatic conditions, and the absence of overcrowding.
Urban districts, especially large manufacturing towns and the
Midlands and North of England, furnish by far the largest percentage
of our high infantile mortality figures, and these will
never be permanently reduced until the mothers in these districts
have learned to counteract the unfavourable environments which
these manufacturing centres impose on the infant population.
Sanitary Authorities will also have to do their part in the way
of reducing smoke and other conditions which pollute the atmosphere.
LADY ASSISTANT MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT
ON
Maternity and Child Welfare.
This branch of the Public Health work has been much
extended by the appointment of four additional whole-time Health
Visitors, making the total now up to eight, and Bermondsey is
now in the front rank of Municipal Boroughs in this respect.
There have been over 1,500 children in regular attendance at
the clinics during the past year, but, apart from these, many
children have been visited at their homes, and the parents