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ment and diagnosis for in-patients and out-patients at 28 hospitals and for the reception of patients for
treatment at 7 hostels. During 1920 special provision was made for the treatment of pregnant women
and very young children suffering from venereal diseases. Practitioners secure, at the cost of the Council,
scientific reports on materials from patients suspected to be suffering from venereal disease and the
supply, free of cost, of salvarsan or its substitutes. The cost of treatment and diagnosis at hospitals
is met by the local authorities affected in proportion to the number of attendances of new patients in the
respective areas. The Council makes direct payments to hospitals for salvarsan or its substitutes
supplied to medical practitioners in London.
These facilities have been fully advertised. By arrangement, as in previous years, the National
Council for Combating Venereal Diseases (a voluntary organisation which co-operates in the carrying
out of the propaganda campaign under the supervision of the Ministry of Health) gave lectures and
addresses to selected audiences, and published information relating to venereal diseases and their treatment,
and grants were made by the Council to the National Council for these purposes.
During 1920, 23,612 persons residing in London were dealt with for the first time at the hospitals
or 2,704 more than in 1919. The number of attendances made by out-patients was 365,478, or an increase
of 132,819 over the number during 1919.
Three-fourths of the Council's expenditure in respect of venereal diseases is recoverable from the
Government.
Prophylaxis.
Careful consideration was given to the conclusions of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Infectious
Diseases in connection with Demobilisation, particularly their note-submitted to the Minister
of Health in August, 1919, on prophylaxis in relation to venereal diseases. The note was concerned
mainly with the advisability, or otherwise, of officially making available for the civil community methods
of prophylaxis (commonly spoken of as the "packet" system) publicly commended as successful among
members of the Forces during the war, and stated that the evidence put before the Committee did not
justify them in recommending the official encouragement of these methods among the civilian population.
The Council studied the evidence on which the Committee based their conclusions and discussed with
experts various aspects of the questions involved. The information obtained did not warrant any
different conclusion, and the very careful investigations made confirmed the Council's view that, apart
from moral considerations and the question whether an effective packet system could be organised for
the civil community, the disadvantages incident to official encouragement outweighed any advantages.
The Inter-Departmental Committee expressed the opinion that energy should not be dissipated on
measures of doubtful value, but concentrated rather on wise propaganda and the provision of early,
prompt and skilled treatment. These are objects of constant attention in the carrying out of the Council's
scheme.
Infant life
protection.
Part I. of the Children Act, 1908, provides that a person who undertakes tor lure or reward the
nursing and maintenance of an infant under the age of seven years apart from its parents shall, within
48 hours, give due notice of such reception to the local authority, in London the Council. If an infant
dies the foster-mother must notify the coroner within 24 hours, and the Council within 48 hours. The
following table shows the number of foster-mothers and nurse-infants notified on 31st December in
each of the years 1915-1920:—
1915. 1916. 1917. 1918. 1919. 1920.
Foster-mothers 3,162 3,110 2,995 2,654 2,481 2,296
Nurse-infants 4,028 4,109 3,990 3,461 3,114 2,952
Power is given under the Act to remove to a place of safety, i.e., a workhouse, an infant in the
charge of a foster-mother who is unfit to have the care of it owing to negligence, ignorance, inebriety,
immorality, criminal conduct or other similar cause. Similar action may be taken where the premises
are overcrowded, dangerous or insanitary, or if the infant is being kept by a person or in any premises
in contravention of the Act. The Act also empowers a local authority to exempt either partially or
wholly premises which in the opinion of the authority are so conducted as to render ordinary inspection
unnecessary.
Towards the end of 1919, the London War Pensions Committee asked the Council to make arrangements
for the inspection of homes in which the Committee proposed to place the neglected children of
deceased or serving soldiers and sailors, and the Council agreed, as a temporary arrangement, to carry
out the work as part of the routine inspection undertaken by its visitors under the Children Act.

* 1 case was adjourned sine die on a point of law.