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ing a printed card of advice is left with the mother. The printed instructions are explained and
notes are made on the health of the child and other matters. If the infant is making good progress,
it is not seen again until the age af six months, but where further advice is needed, interim visits
are paid according to the necessities of each case. Inquiries are also made in the homes of infants
who die before the age of 12 months or who are notified as still-born. The information obtained
in this way has been summarised in the tables dealing with the causes of infantile mortality, and has
already been fully discussed. "Want of Breast Milk," the want of timely medical advice and
improper feeding are the evils against which the efforts of the Health Visitors are chiefly directed.
Necessitous mothers are referred to the Charity Organisation Society or to one of the three dinner
centres. Hospital letters are obtained for ailing infants whose parents cannot afford to pay for
medical advice and the fullest use is made of the assistance offered to mothers of the poorer classes
by various philanthropic agencies in the Borough.
In the northern half of the Borough there |are now three schools for mothers where any
necessitous woman who is nursing her baby can obtain a dinner in the middle of the day at a cost
of one penny. At each school weekly consultations are also held and are attended both by nursing
mothers and the mothers of bottle-fed babies. At these consultations each baby is weighed and at
two schools the weighing is carried out by the Council's Health Visitors who attend once a week
for this purpose and for the purpose of giving advice. At the third school advice is given to the
mothers by a lady who is a qualified medical practitioner and Dr. Carter attends once a week at
the school in the Bramley Road, to see any child whose progress is not satisfactory. At all three
schools sewing classes are held and lectures on infant care are given. In a period of 12 months
more than 470 mothers have attended the infant consultations at one or other of the three centres,
and when the records are examined which show that many women continue to bring their babies
to be weighed for six or seven months or even longer periods, it is evident that there is no lack of
maternal instinct among the poorer classes and no narrow limit to the amount of good which is
certain to be effected by teaching women who are so anxious to learn. The total number of dinners
supplied to expectant or nursing mothers during the year amounted to 20,372, and it is of interest
to note, without too strict an examination of the statistical value of the results, that two schools
claim to have had no deaths from diarrhoea among their infants during the serious outbreak which
occurred in the summer months. Mention should also be made of the Cooking Classes for mothers
which are held at the Bramley Road School and the School in the Lancaster Road.
Through the close connection which exists between the Schools and the Public Health Department,
overlapping is avoided and a system has been established which cannot fail to effect a
material improvement in the physique of the children of the poorer classes in Kensington.