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72 Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
To avoid such home pollution, and to supply a milk suitable for
immediate consumption by infants, is the aim of these municipal milk
depots. The following statistics, however, show that so far there has
been little or no beneficial result from the possession of such depots.
Taking the Diarrhœa deaths in two localities where no depot
exists, and in two where such depots have existed for two years, the
following are the death-rates per 1,000 from Diarrhœa for the nine
weeks from the 16th July to the l0th September, 1904:—
Towns in which there are depots—
Liverpool death-rate 11.2.
Battersea „ 4.2.
Compared with towns in which there are no depots—
Manchester death-rate 5.4.
Wandsworth „ 3.8.
The infantile mortality for the same towns for the same period
was as follows:—
Liverpool 376
Battersea 239
Manchester 273
Wandsworth 223
In the whole of London for the same nine weeks, the infantile
mortality was 246, and the death-rate from Diarrhœa 4.4.
The rate for Manchester compared with Liverpool is much lower,
and cannot be due either to the difference in the age, constitution of
the population, or in their social status, the suburbs of both containing
a very large proportion of the working classes.
It may, however, be urged that the above statistics, especially
the infantile mortality rate, do not give a true idea of the Diarrhœa
death-rate.
It is, however, the only method available, and if the lowering of
the death-rate from Diarrhœa is not the sole object to be gained then
there is no necessity for establishing milk depots. It is for that
purpose and that alone that they have been established.