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39
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
In 30 of the families visited (112) the "long-tube" bottle was found to have been used,
and 90 of the houses (112) had no proper accommodation for the storage of food. The difficulties
associated with the proper care of the long-tube bottles are generally known. In such
cases the food (possibly, nay, probably) already contaminated, was given in a bottle
imperfectly cleansed after previous use, and the child thus received a double dose of poison.
Want of larder accommodation entails pollution of the food by flies, etc.

Between July, 1905, and January, 1906, the Women Inspectors and Students "visited"
865 babies. Care was taken in selecting the cases to be visited to select addresses which
seemed to suggest that the parents would be the most likely to need advice and help in the
rearing of the infants—in other words, the cases were such as would furnish, under ordinary
circumstances, the highest infantile mortality.
Records have been kept of the deaths of the babies visited, pains being taken to trace the
children and their deaths. From the records thus made it appears that 61 of the "visited"
children did not survive their first birthday, a figure equivalent to a mortality of 70 per 1,000,
as compared with a rate of 107 in the whole Borough. The "diarrhœal diseases" caused 19
deaths, or 31 per cent, of the whole, as against 35 per cent. in the whole Borough.
Mortality among Illegitimate Children.—Forty-nine (49) deaths of such children were
registered in the Borough last year, being 10 more than in 1905. Of the 49 deaths 15 did not
belong to the Borough, while 9 deaths belonging to the Borough were registered outside its
boundaries. The nett total of such deaths was 43, compared with 34 in 1905 and 69 in
1904. Thirty-four (34) of the children were under one year of age. The infantile mortality
among illegitimate children, calculated on the number of such births registered within the
Borough, was 254 last year, the corresponding rate for legitimate children being 106. Calculating
the rates on the nett totals of births (131 illegitimate, and 3,155 legitimate) the rates
become 259 and 101 respectively, a very marked contrast. Particulars as to ages at death,
causes of same, &c., are given below .