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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 dep6t must not be lost sight of.
It is now over 20 years since the Municipal Milk Depot was first
inaugurated (1903) and opened to the public ([906), 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.
Proposed Appointment of Assistant Medical Officer of
Health for Maternity and Child Welfare Purposes.
The Lambeth Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme has grown by
leaps and bounds, as shewn by the fact that there are now comprised
in such Scheme fourteen Voluntary Centres, together with a Council
Maternity Home and a Municipal Milk Depot. It is clear, therefore,
that the efficiency of the work must suffer from lack of detailed coordination
and personal supervision, which can only be effectively
remedied by the appointment of a whole time Assistant Medical Officer
of Health—preferably a lady Medical Officer, experienced in Maternity
and Child Welfare work. Such an officer would be responsible for
the detailed supervision of the Maternity and Child Welfare work in
the Borough, under the direction of the Medical Officer of Health,
who, by virtue of his many other duties, is quite unable, in practice,,
to give such necessary detailed attention to what has now become a
very large and important branch of the Borough's Public Health work.
The Assistant Medical Officer of Health to be appointed should
have complete control of the Council's new Maternity Home at
210, Knight's Hill, as Medical Officer thereto, and also of the
various ante-natal clinics which are attached to the different
Voluntary Welfare centres, so as to ensure uniformity and co-ordination
of administration and treatment throughout the Borough—a most
desirable objective from an official point of view. It might, even, be
found practicable for the proposed Assistant Medical Officer of Health
to act also as officiating Medical Officer of one or more of the antenatal
clinics, thereby simplifying, considerably, the ante-maternity
work of the Borough. This would depend, however, upon how her
ordinary duties worked out in actual practice—ordinary duties of an
advisory and supervisory nature over the whole of the existing Voluntary
Welfare Centres, which are comprised, at the present time, within
the Lambeth Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme. There can be
no doubt as to the necessity for the appointment of an Assistant
Medical Officer of Health to be responsible for all these detailed duties
being adequately and efficiently carried out. Lambeth, of all districts,