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25
the production of further children likely to be of
feeble body or mind or to be deprived of a fair start
in life is an obvious anti-social act against the interest
of the community.
The reduction in the Infant Death Rate is one
about which we can feel special satisfaction. As will
be seen from the graph, the rate, always a sensitive
barometer of sanitary, metereological and social conditions,
has dropped from 147 in 1901 and 148 in
1911 to 100 in 1921 and 60 in the year under report.
While the generally improved standard of living, better
sanitation, slight housing betterment, have all contributed
to this result, it cannot be doubted that the
special measures which have been employed since 1915
and 1918 for Child Welfare have also had a great
influence in making child life safer and happier.
It is the more regrettable that the Maternal
Mortality Rate has not shared in the favourable trend
of the preceding measures of the health of the community.
From 2.2 in 1901 it has proceeded to 3.5 in
1911, 2.0 in 1921 and 2.0 last year. In comparison
with other districts, London as a whole, and England
and Wales, the experience of the borough is not bad,
especially if one considers the unsatisfactory conditions
in which confinements frequently take place in a poor
district; but no one can regard with tolerance the
continuance of mortality in what should be a normal
physiological function and it is regrettable that so
little progress has been made after 30 years. The
divided jurisdiction with regard to the medical and
midwifery agencies at work in the borough limits the
power of the Borough Council and restricts its sphere
of useful service in this particular matter. To the
extent to which the Council is legally empowered, it
can rightly claim to have contributed valuable aid in
rendering maternity in the Borough a safer function
and in making lighter the burden of the lying-in
mother.