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9
We thus see that the number of deaths of infants increases
almost every year. (Last year it was represented as being 152,
this was I think a mistake.) I see that almost every year it has
been remarked by your medical officers how great this death rate
is, and various proposals have been made to try and lessen it. I
am of the opinion that this is greatly due to the parents using
feeding bottles with india rubber tubes. These tubes are very difficult
to clean and a little sour milk remains in them. This forms
a nidus for germs to grow in, and so pass into the child's stomach
where they set up fermentation within. The old fashioned boat
shaped bottles are much eaiest to clean, and for this reason are to
be recommended much more. The only trouble being that the
mother must hold the bottle while the child is fed.
ZYMOTIC DEATH-RATE.
The total number of deaths registered for the principal
zymotic diseases was 89, as compared with 91 last year. This
gives a zymotic death rate of 3.4 per thousand, as against 3.6 per
thousand last year. The following table compares the total deaths
and the zymotic deaths as they occurred in the principal districts:—
Acton. S.Acton. E.Acton. Acton Green. Willesden Bedford P'k.
Total Deaths. 171 131 42 85 9 13
Deaths from
zymotic disease. 22 32 11 19 4 1
In the following table the death rate and the zymotic death
rate are so arranged that a comparison can be made for the last
six years. By it, also will be seen that although the death rate
is higher than that of last year by 1.6 per thousand, the zymotic
death rate is a trifle lower, and that wheareas measles, whooping