View report page

91
Day Nursery.—There are two nurseries in which mothers who work
away from home may place their young children during working hours.
There the children are cared for by a trained staff, and a visiting medical
officer examines all children on entry, pays regular visits, and is available
for cases of sudden illness. The homes are situated in the districts
where the need for them is greatest. The Council make an annual grant
of £25 towards the expenses of the nursery organised by the British
Red Cross Society.
Supply of Milk.—Fresh and dried milk is supplied to certain cases
recommended by the medical officer of the Maternity and Child Welfare
centre. Before the grants are made a standard of income laid down by
the Ministry must be proved. In some instances the weekly income
does not justify an award of free milk, but those cases may come within
the scale for milk at half price. The applications are considered by a
meeting of the ladies of the Maternity and Child Welfare Sub-Committee,
which takes place once a month at each centre. Grants are made for
a period of one month and are reconsidered for continuation at each
meeting. Preparations of dried milk are sold at cost price in connection
with the centres, 1,224 pounds being disposed of during the year. The
amount expended by the Council for fresh milk as extra nourishment
for mothers and infants amounted to £89 1s. 11d.; the figures since 1921
are as follows:—
£ s. d.
1921 260 16 1
1922 142 0 6½
£ s. d.
1923 78 16 7
1924 70 17 9
INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION OF FOOD.
The importance of food, its sources of production, methods of
preparation and storage are subjects which continue to attract increasing
public attention. History shows that as the culture and wealth of
a nation develop, the simpler elements of diet tend to become more and
more elaborated. It is not only that the public have become fastidious,
but rather that the part which diet plays in human economy is studied
with ever widening knowledge.
The relative values of the various foodstuffs as sources of energy,
heat and tissue repair, continue to engage the study of the physiologists,
while a newer aspect, that of food as a factor in the growth of the organism
and its influences in the prevention and causation of disease, has opened
up an entirely new aspect of inquiry. There are good grounds for the belief
that rickets is largely due to a deficiency of calcium and phosphorus in
the body. In order to obtain improvement in this condition, the output
from the body of those substances must be adjusted in relation to the
(6375)Q G 2