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furnished in her report serves to impress the facts which were disclosed
by a similar enquiry during the preceding year. In over onethird
of the poorer houses the mothers were engaged in some work
which took them from their homes during the greater part of the day,
and it was again found that the number of children nursed by their
mothers is far below the number who are reared artificially. The
accommodation at the disposal of the parents was in many cases very
scant and the provision for the storage of food was necessarily bad. In
almost all the cases investigated food was stored in a cupboard which
was either in the kitchen or in a living room, and it was ascertained that
the milk given to the infant was rarely properly protected from dust
contamination. As the result of her enquiry Miss Wilkinson
-concludes that in a great many cases the health of the mother before
pregnancy was such as would necessarily lead to a feeble ill-nourished
baby with little vitality. The condition of poverty in several
cases had entailed insufficient food, and in other cases ignorance (in
combination with poverty) was responsible for improper and insufficient
food both to the pregnant mother and to the child. As an
illustration of the great difficulties experienced in dealing with the
more ignorant mothers, it may be noted that in one home where two
children only had survived out of eight, the mother not only refused
to give information but also to listen to the advice which we were
prepared to offer her.
PUBLIC HEALTH WORKERS IN STOKE NEWINGTON.
In this country Public Health authorities are increasingly
recognising the value of the services of female sanitary inspeitors or
health visitors, and voluntary lady health missioners are now in many
districts helping to stem the tide of infantile mortality. I have
myself succeeded in organising such a body in Stoke Newington.
Their main duty is to visit the poorer houses when babies are born, to
show a tactful interest in the child and to guide the mother in the
care, feeding, and management of the infant.