View report page

70 Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH ON
DIARRHŒA, AND THE PROVISION OF A MUNICIPAL
MILK DEPOT.
Before considering the advisability or not of establishing a
municipal milk depot in this Borough, it may be stated that it is
extremely improbable that the Local Government Board would sanction
any expenditure for that purpose. In the only Metropolitan Borough
where such a depot is in existence, the Local Government Board
auditor has, on two separate occasions, surcharged the amount
expended.
Municipal milk depots have been established for the purpose of
trying to reduce the infantile mortality, and especially that due to
Diarrhœa.
In my Annual Reports, I have, for some years, called attention to
the loss of life from this cause, and have stated that the causes of the
mortality are exceedingly complex. It is true that it is largely due to
improper food, and chiefly to milk pollution with certain bacteria, but
many other questions have to be considered before coming to any
definite conclusion as to the preventive means to be adopted.
Owing to climatic conditions, the mortality in the years 1902 and
1903 was much under the average, in this Borough the total infantile
mortality being only 110, compared with 126 in 1902, 133 in 1901, and
143 in 1900. The death-rate from Diarrhœa was only .38 per 1000,
both in 1902 and 1903, while in 1901 this rate was .69.
The following Table shows the rate in each quarter for the years
1901, 1902 and 1903, and for the first two quarters, and part of the
third quarter in 1904