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of the child, besides which there is the constant risk of contamination
of the milk by dirt, disease germs and chemical substances.
The effects of unsuitable feeding in infancy are much more reaching
than would at first sight appear. Many infants improperly fed die very
soon from stomach and bowel troubles induced thereby, while others
may grow up, but have had their power of resistance to disease so
weakened that they are liable to any complaint. Dr. Eichholz,
an Inspector of Schools, in giving evidence before the InterDepartmental
Committee, stated that food is at the base of all the evils
of child degeneracy. Dr. Hall found, on examining 2,335 board school
children in Leeds and the neighbourhood, that half of them were
suffering from the effects of rickets, and more than half had decaying or
badly-developed teeth. Dr. Ralph Vincent states that physical and
mental deficiencies of all possible kinds are caused by infantile malnutrition,
the effects of which extend throughout the whole of life.
School inspection, while ensuring that the children are being
educated under healthy conditions, will reveal the existence of defects
produced during infancy ; but education authorities, although they may
be able to do something to ameliorate the condition, will be unable to
take any steps for the prevention of these defects if they do not work
in the closest relationship with the sanitary authorities.
If increased attention can be given to ensure that methods of proper
feeding, &c., are carried out, school authorities in the future will have
less cause to complain that the children are not in such a state of health
that they can profit by the education provided.
In 1891, in every 1,000 infants born in Westminster, 164 died before
attaining one year of age; in 1900, when the City was incorporated, this
rate had been reduced to 148; in 1907 a further reduction to 110 had
been effected. Part of this is due to the removal from parts of the City
of a poor class of persons living under insanitary conditions, but the
reduction has not been confined to these districts, so that to other
agencies must be attributed a considerable proportion of the improvement.
These are the more thorough execution of the Public Health
Acts by the Council, as compared with their predecessors, the more
frequent removal of refuse from the houses, better scavenging of the
streets, and improved and cleaner sewers. In addition, there has been
during the last three years the increasing work of the Health Society,
through whose agency in 1907 sixty-five lectures were given to mothers
and girls, more than 1,200 families in which there were newly-born
children were visited (in 400 instances both before and after the confinement),
and leaflets giving advice to mothers in various languages have
been widely distributed. It is anticipated that the Act for the earlier
notification of births will be of value by enabling advice and assistance