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10
The importance of this matter cannot be over-estimated. On
referring to the last Annual Report of the Registrar-General we
find that of the total deaths, 504,975, registered in England and
Wales during the year 1913, 95,608 or 18.9 per cent. occurred
among infants under one year of age.
Of the 95,608 infant deaths recorded in one year, Measles
and Whooping Cough accounted for 4,704, Tuberculosis, 2672,
Syphilis, 1,386, Infantile Convulsions excluding convulsions
from teething, 7,069, Diarrhoea and Enteritis, 17,038, Premature
Birth, 29,616. These figures alone are sufficient evidence that
more and more energy is required by Public Health Authorities
in applying measures to check this terrible wastage of life.
Not only is life wasted as the result of preventable disease
but a great deal of suffering and misery is produced in those
who, although escaping death, may be so damaged during infancy
by disease as to become physically unfit and even derelicts.
I am sure your Council will appreciate the importance of
carefully considering this subject in the near future.
The question of the provision of treatment for Tuberculosis
in the Borough still remains unsettled. It may be useful here to
summarise the position.
Your Public Health Committee considered a report of a
scheme for Lewisham submitted by me at a meeting in July, 1912.
The consideration was referred to a joint Committee of the
General Purposes and Public Health Committees, who had before
them a full detailed report and scheme.