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and those mothers and infants and children (under 5 years of age)
who require medical advice are examined by the Medical Officer of
Health, visiting at the homes being carried out by a Health Visitor,
as required. The Manageress also attends daily (Sundays excepted)
between the hours of 12 (noon) and 2 p.m. at the Dep6t for the
purpose of distributing the milk and of also consulting with mothers
and others in regard to infant and child feeding and management.
The Medical Officer of Health can also be seen personally by mothers
by appointment at the Town Hall, or communicated with by telephone,
the Town Hall and the Milk Depot being in telephonic communication.
The most conclusive proof of the value of a Milk Depot, in so fai
as the infants and children fed are concerned, is to be found in the
medical histories of individual cases, which show again and again, in
the case of the DepCt, that those infants and children who appear to
be seriously ill and wasting, if not moribund, as the result of improper
or irregular feeding, at the time of commencing the milk, actually
recover and become strong and healthy. Practically no medicines are
used, reliance being placed upon what is Known as percentage feeding,
the giving of modified (humanised) cow's milk, of which the different
composition varies according to the age and condition of the infant or
child being fed. The percentages of protein, fat, carbohydrate and
mineral matter are strictly in accordance (averages) with those to be
found in mother's milk for the same age periods of the various infants
fed, except in such cases as require one or other of the ingredients to
be modified.
The educational value of a milk depot must not be lost sight of.
It is now over 20 years since the Municipal Milk Dep6t was first
inaugurated (1903) and opened to the public (1906), and the history
and the experience gained during that period are worthy of being put
on record, as shewing what can be effected by well-directed municipal
action.
Twenty Years' Experience of the Lambeth Municipal
Milk Depot.
On 9th July, 1903 (Minutes 1903, pages 164-9), the Borough
Council decided to establish a Municipal Milk Depot for the Borough
of Lambeth, and, for that purpose, secured afterwards {Minutes 1904,
pages 1686-7) the premises known as 66, York Road, Westminster
B 2