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to the encouragement of breast feeding during the suckling period of infancy. In the first year St.Pancras
stood fortieth in the order of these towns, i.e., thirty-nine had a lower infant mortality; in the second
year it was thirty-fourth, and in the third year sixteenth. Compared with the other London sanitary
areas, St. Pancras was twenty-fifth in 1904, eighteenth in 1905, and thirteenth in 1906. Obviously, the
three years' experience does not suffice for precise inferences, but the altered position of St. Pancras is
none the less of much interest. Dr. Sykes writes: "The reason for the reduction of infant mortality
in St. Pancras is, in my opinion, due to an increase in breast feeding. It is extremely difficult to demonstrate
this in figures, but inquiries indicate that maternal functions are being better fulfilled, and the
constantly reiterated advice to thousands of mothers to breast-feed must be having this salutary
effect."
The importance of breast feeding is insisted upon by medical officers of health, and the proportions
of children breast-fed and hand-fed are shown in a number of the annual reports. In an analysis
of 1,127 deaths of infants in Finsbury, Dr. Newman found that the mothers lived at home in 77 per
cent., and in 88 per cent. the houses were either well kept or fairly Well kept; but only 30 per cent. of
the children were breast-fed, and if deaths due to epidemic diseases be considered, only 14 per cent. of
the children were wholly breast-fed.
A National Conference on Infantile Mortality was held in London in June, 1906, the conference
having as its president the Right Honourable John Burns, M.P., President of the Local Government
Board, and as its chairman Mr. Evan Spicer, Chairman of the London County Council. Several
important papers bearing on the subject were read, and various resolutions were adopted. The resolutions
related to the following subjects:—the teaching to girls in the public schools of elementary
hygiene with reference to the dietary and rearing of infants, the establishment of milk depots, the
notifications of births, the insurance of infant lives,the limitation of employment of women shortly
before and after childbirth, the amendment of the Infant Life Protection Act and of the Dairies,
Milkshops and Cowsheds Orders, and the employment of specially trained women as an adjunct to
public health work. The Secretary of State has since invited medical officers of health to a conference
at the Home Office on the employment of women shortly before and after childbirth.
Deaths at All Ages from certain Diseases and Groups of Diseases.
The following table from the Annual Summary of the Registrar-General shows the diminution
or excess in the year 1906 under certain of the more important headings in the list of causes of death,
as compared with the annual average deaths of the preceding 10 years, corrected for increase of
population.

1 For purposes of comparison deaths from Infective Endocarditis are included under this heading.
14911 C 2