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It will be seen therefore that there has been a steady
decline in the amount of money spent in this way
during the past three years, the greatest drop being
between 1921 and 1922. The usual careful enquiries
have been made into the financial circumstances of
applicants for free or reduced price milk, and the
Maternity and Child Welfare Committee have been
much helped in these enquiries by the assistance of
the Charity Organisation Society. In addition to the
milk given free or at reduced price, 13,481 lbs. of dried
milk, value £1,028, were sold at cost price to persons
recommended by the health visitors or Infant Welfare
Centres. In 1923 the amount of dried milk distributed
was 15,079 lbs., value £1,339 2s. 4d.
Incidence of Infectious Disease amongst
Parturient Women and Infants.
Puerperal Fever.—26 cases of puerperal fever, equal
to 8.7 per 1,000 births, were notified during 1924,
compared with 32 cases the previous year. There
were 4 deaths from this disease against 9 during 1923.
All the cases except one were removed to hospital.
Although the number of cases of this disease notified
in the Borough is still high, it is some consolation to
know that there is a decrease as compared with the
previous year, and the marked drop in the number of
deaths is most satisfactory. In my Annual Report
for 1923 I stated that a considerable number of the
notifications of puerperal fever received in this Borough
are in respect of women who have suffered from miscarriages,
many of them in the early months of pregnancy.
Although it would appear that such cases
should certainly be notified as puerperal fever, I can
safely say that in many districts this rule is more
honoured in the breach than the observance. I think
that this undoubtedly accounts, to a considerable
extent, for the fact that our number of cases of puerperal
fever is generally in excess of that in many other
districts. During 1924 I find that no less than seven
of these notifications referred to cases of puerperal
fever which occurred subsequent to miscarriages, so