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6 notifications.
detection of grosser nuisances, and some attention given to the circumstances of the infant.
The houses thus visited numbered 968. In 23 instances the name of the family was unknown.
False addresses are deliberately given when registering births for various reasons, one being
with a view to evading vaccination. In 58 other instances the family had removed since the
birth of the child. Thus 8 per cent, of the children born, whose surroundings the experience
of the department indicated were in need of supervision, could not be reported on. The
Inspectors found it necessary to exclude 22 other children from their reports on this work for
various reasons.
Of the 865 children reported on 177 were first.borns. The total number of children born
to the remaining 688 families (excluding those dealt with here) was, according to the parents'
statements, 3,268, an average of nearly 5 to a family, of whom 605 were dead at the time'of
the inquiries—equal to a mortality of 185 per 1,000. The deaths, however, were not equally
averaged as they occurred in 314 families out of a total of 688.
From the general survey of the children, admittedly a very rough criterion, the
Inspectors classed 676 children as in " good " health ; 140 in " fair " ; and 49 in " bad "—or in
percentages 78, 16, and 6. These figures, even with every reservation, appear to afford
grounds for hoping that good results will accrue from systematic endeavours to check infantile
mortality.
The Inspectors report that they found 670 children (77 per cent.) were being fed from the
breast; 102 (12 per cent.) by hand; and 93 (11 per cent.) by breast supplemented by hand
feeding.
Of 862 homes, 653 were reported as clean, 174 as " fairly clean," and 35 as dirty. Larder
accommodation was provided at 124 only. The nuisances discovered numbered 131, viz., 43.
defective dustbins, 59 dirty cisterns, and 29 " various."
NOTIFICATIONS.
The cases of infectious disease certified in accordance with the Public Health (London)'
Act, 1891, numbered 564 in 1905, as compared with 684 in 1904 and 732 in 1903. The
figures show a decline of 23 and 17.5 per cent, of the totals of 1903 and 1904 respectively.
In the whole Metropolis the total cases in each of the three years 1903, 1904 and 1905 have
been 27,732, 28,337 and 32,874 respectively—the figures for the last two years represent
increases of 2T and 18.5 per cent, respectively.
Comparing 1905 with 1904 (Table 6) the only increases in the numbers of cases recorded
in the Borough during the past year were those of membranous croup (4) and erysipelas (18).
In the Metropolis, increases were recorded in the cases of scarlet fever (6,018), erysipelas
(21), puerperal fever (17) and typhus fever (6). The total sickness rate for the Borough for
last year (3.81) was a little more than half that for the Metropolis (7.01). All the local
rates for individual diseases were below those for the Metropolis, the contrast in the rates for
diphtheria and scarlet fever being particularly' satisfactory.