View report page

65
which are at the present time in a very insanitary and dirty condition.
I have advised the Borough Council to undertake this sale of clean milk,
which I am sure would assist considerably in the diminution of this
high infant mortality. For years past the Council of the Borough has
issued a circular to mothers on how to feed infants, recommending
among other things that mothers, as much as possible, should breast-feed
their children. Last year a very large percentage of the children born
in Southwark were periodically visited by our lady inspectors, and from
their reports I find that 81.8 per cent, of all the children visited were
breast fed, 11 per cent, were partly breast fed and partly hand fed, and
only 6.4 were entirely hand fed. I expect if we can only keep up this
high percentage of breast fed children in the future we shall see a large
diminution in the infant mortality.
With regard to the overcrowding of our tenements in the Borough,
it is impossible to prevent much of what now exists, as long as Southwark
remains the home of the "undesirables," and as long as such
manufacture continues. This overcrowding is always accompanied by
uncleanliness, foul air and bad insanitary conditions. The standards of
300 cubic feet for adults, and 200 for children in sleeping rooms are not
sufficient, unless good ventilation is well maintained. Therefore the
sleeping with open windows is a necessity for good health. In the
census of 1901 it was found that 22.35 per cent, of the population of
Southwark lived in a state of overcrowdedness, that is, had more than
two persons to each room; 9,896 persons out of a population of
206,180 also lived in single room tenements. Although there is a
reduction in the overcrowdedness by some 5 per cent, on the figures of
the census of 1891, it must still be considered excessive. Sir Benjamin
Richardson's estimate for his City of Hygeia was 25 persons per acre.
In Southwark there is an average of 182 persons to the acre, and in
some parts near the Old Kent Road there are as many as 281 to the acre.
The Southwark Borough Council issued a short time ago a circular on
the evil effects of alcohol when taken in excess, or even when taken very
moderately as a beverage. The lamentable diseases it induces and the
wreckage and degradation it causes, call for strenuous efforts on the part
of everyone to combat this grave evil. It is very difficult to convince
people that a small amount of alcohol, if regularly taken, has a decidedly
bad effect on the constitution. It is easier for anyone to prove for himself
how much better he is for work and how much his temper is
improved by abstaining from alcohol altogether. For the excessive
drinker his only hope of salvation is in total abstinence. Alcohol is in
no sense a food, it cannot repair our tissues, and therefore it cannot
benefit us during continued fatigue.