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230 Annual Report of the London County Council, 1913.
The accounts of the Central Midwives Board showed an adverse balance for the year 1912, and
the Council was called upon in 1913 to pay a sum of £103 1s. 3d. as its proportion of this deficit.
During the year the necessity was impressed upon the Council, both from the sanitary and
from the moral point of view, for some measure of public control being exercised over lying-in homes.
A considerable number of houses and institutions at which pregnant women were received were
known to exist in London, and the necessity for conferring on local authorities powers to regulate
such places was recognised to some extent in the two bills for the amendment of the Midwives Act,
1902, which were introduced in the House of Lords in the session of 1910. Moreover, representations
were made by delegates from various charitable societies and others that, as the result of the passing
of the National Insurance Act, 1911, unmarried women who formerly obtained admittance to poor
law institutions for their confinements, were in many cases receiving maternity benefit under the Act
and entering lying-in homes at which, in some instances, they were subjected to immoral influences.
The means by which the regulation of lying-in homes could best be effected were carefully
considered, and two courses appeared to be open to the Council, (1) by licensing, and (2) by registration.
The former alternative appeared to be the better, and the Council accordingly decided to
seek powers to enable it to require such places and the persons in charge thereof to be licensed annually.
It did not appear necessary or desirable that the Council s powers of licensing should extend
to poor law institutions or important hospitals or to a private residence in which a relative of the
occupier was received for her confinement, and provision was accordingly made for such places to be
excepted from the proposed legislation. It was necessary also, having regard to the variety of institutions
and places concerned, that the Council should retain the right to make certain other exceptions.
There are certain services closely allied to that of public health which it is convenient to review
in this chapter. They are (a) infant life protection, and (b) diseases of animals. The powers of the
Council in these matters are exercised by the Public Control Committee.
The duties of the Council under Part I. of the Children Act, 1908, include the institution of
inquiries as to persons who undertake the nursing and maintenance of infants, the fixing of the number
of infants which may be kept in a dwelling as to which notice has been given, and the appointment
of infant protection visitors to inspect places where infants are kept. The Council is required to satisfy
itself as to the proper maintenance of the infants, and may arrange for the removal from a notified
house of an infant improperly kept. Notice has to be given to the Council in cases where one infant
is received, and the age limit of infants is 7 years. The Act also contains a provision making void
any policy of insurance on the life of an infant when taken out by any person who shall have the
custody of such infant for reward, and making it an offence for any such person to insure or attempt
to insure the life of such infant. Offences are punishable by imprisonment for a term not exceeding
six months, or a fine not exceeding £25, and the fines are paid to the Council.
On 31st March, 1909, before the Act came into operation, there were 268 homes containing
G68 infants under inspection by the Council's officers, and on 31st December, 1913, the numbers
had risen to 3,070 and 3,976 respectively. There were also 8 homes with one nurse infant each, which
were under inspection by philanthropic societies acting as infant protection visitors under powers
delegated by the Council under the Act, and 20 homes, containing 39 children, exempted from official
inspection.
The Children (Employment Abroad) Act, 1913, prohibits the removal out of the United
Kingdom of a child or (without a licence to be granted by a police magistrate) of a young person, for the
purpose of singing, playing, performing or being exhibited for profit. All notices of intention to apply
for licences are sent to the Council.
The Diseases of Animals Acts, 1894 to 1911, make provision for the prevention, diminution and
suppression of contagious diseases in animals, and are enforced in London partly by the Board of
Agriculture and Fisheries and partly by the Council and the City Corporation. The Acts are supplemented
by Orders made by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries dealing with infectious disease
among animals and the areas in which such disease exists.
The Acts and Orders are administered in London outside the City by the Council, and in the
City by the Corporation, which body is also responsible as port sanitary authority for enforcing the
provisions of the Act relating to foreign animals.
The prevalence of contagious disease in animals in London during the year 1913 is shown by the
following statement indicating the number of animals attacked :—Glanders, including farcy, 288 cases ;
typhoid in swine, 9 outbreaks ; anthrax, 6 cases ; and parasitic mange, 1,261 cases.
Compensation amounting to £3,787 4s. 6d. was paid by the Council in respect of glandered
horses slaughtered during the year. Four infringements of the Glanders or Farcy Order of 1907
were detected.
The number of infringements of the Parasitic Mange Order of 1911 detected was 89, and in 22
cases legal proceedings were taken, penalties amounting in all to £109 3s. 6d. being imposed.
During the year the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries issued an Order, entitled the Horses
(Importation and Transit) Order of 1913, which came into operation on 1st October, 1913. This Order
revokes the previous Order of 1912 and Amending Orders dealing with the importation and transit
of horses, asses and mules, and re-enacts those Orders with certain amendments. The two most
important amendments are as follows:—Horses, asses and mules brought to Great Britain from
abroad are required to be accompanied by a veterinary certificate of freedom from symptoms of
glanders (including farcy), epizootic lymphangitis, ulcerative lymphangitis, dourine, horse-pox, sarcoptic
mange, psoroptic mange, influenza, ringworm or strangles. Formerly a certificate of freedom from
symptoms of glanders (including farey) only was required.
Lying-in
homes.
Infant life
protection.
Employment
of children
abroad.
Diseases of
animals.