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table it appears that of the 428 deaths under one year in 1908, the numbers in the successive
quarters were 111, 84, 131 and 102. Diarrhoea, which in 1907 was the cause of 21 deaths, proved
fatal to 65 infants last year. Prematurity of birth was the cause of 74 deaths, including 54 in the
first week, and all save four within four weeks after birth. Diseases of the lungs account for
79 deaths (pneumonia JjO, bronchitis 29), atrophy, debility, marasmus for 43, tuberculous diseases for
27. Syphilis was accountable for 17 deaths, and 22 were attributable to congenital defects.
The births registered as illegitimate were 191, or 5'5 per cent on total births; the deaths of
illegitimate infants were 53, equal to 12*4 per cent, on all deaths under one year, and 27'7 per cent,
on births registered as illegitimate.
The Health Visitors, Miss Gauntlett and Miss Wilkinson have submitted a report on their
work during the year as follows:—
"The Care of Infants.— In the course of the year 2,446 visits and 1,927 re-visits were paid to
the homes ; total visits 4,373; in North Kensington 3,530; in South Kensington 676. In 167 cases
no information was obtainable.
"A Weekly visit was paid to the Maternity Ward of the Borough Infirmary, and 58 Convalescent
mothers were interviewed. Many of these mothers were re-visited subsequently in their own
homes.
"Of the 2,279 infants seen 1,865 were found—when the first visit was paid—to be breast-fed only,
221 were partly breast and partly hand-fed; and 193 were entirely Land fed. Eighty-eight of the
two latter classes were improperly fed, and 81 hand-fed infants were weaned at birth. Forty-eight
long-tubed bottles were in use. We are glad to be able to record a steady decline in the use of the
long-tubed bottles.
"Eighteen hundred and forty-five infants appeared to be in a healthy condition, and 434 were
suffering from various diseases or were weakly and ill-nourished A large proportion of these sickly
infants were breast-fed only, and doubtless owing their debility in many cases to the obviously illnourished
condition of the mothers; 178 were partly or wholly hand fed, and 40 little sufferers were
improperly fed; 44 infants were found to be dirty and not receiving proper care.
"Assiduous re-visiting resulted in "improvement" being recorded in 301 cases; this means
that the mothers had been successfully urged to clothe their infants in woollen vests, that in cases
of illness, in compliance with the visitor's wish, a doctor had been consulted—that long-tubed
bottles and improper feeding had been abandoned—that homes were cleaner, and that the health
of mother and child (one or both) had improved.
"It was ascertained that 573 mothers went out to work as laundresses, charwomen, etc., (154
of the women had worked up to the day of confinement), the infants thus bereft of maternal care
were put out to nurse in creches, and with fostermothers; no objection was raised by the latter to
visits being paid to the children while under their care. Thirty-five mothers were employed in
their own homes as machinists and laundresses.
"Mothers to the number of 189 were found to be in a weakly state of health, and by reason of
consumption, anaemia, starvation, mammary abscesses, overwork, etc., 48 were unable to suckle
their infants at all; 47 strong, robust-looking women stated that they were unable to feed naturally
owing, in some cases to depressed nipples, in others to indifference or expediency, and 9 women only
acknowledged to unwillingness. We came across 187 families in need of food—the lying-in mother,
invariably the bread winner, was the principal sufferer in each case.
"In this connection we wish to record our gratitude for the sympathy and practical help
received from the many charities we have pressed into the service of the necessitous mother,
enabling her to retain the milk for the child's sustenance which would otherwise have been lost:
also work has been found for some fathers.
"ReNotication of Births Act—The following analysis of 100 consecutive cases visited during
the 1ying-in period and re-visited within 2 months of life, may serve to demonstrate—
I. The necessity for early visiting now made possible by the Notification of Births Act, and
II. The value of re-visiting.