View report page

6
The following causes, in my opinion, contribute towards
making the infant mortality so high in England:—
1. Contagion of microbes in the milk.
2. Ignorance of parents as to suitable food to give a
child brought up by hand.
3. Bad ventilation and overcrowding, especially in the
houses of the working classes, which induces a lowered state of
vitality, and rickets.
4. Children being placed under the care of others
during the absence of the mother at her work.
It appears to me that the only way to combat the above
evils, would be to educate the mothers, which could be done by
lectures, say at mothers' meetings, or else the medical practitioner
in attendance at the confinement could give the mother written
instructions how to bring up her offspring.
A Creche under the supervision of an experienced nurse,
should exist in the several districts, and be partly self-supporting.
ZYMOTIC DEATH RATE.
The total number of deaths registered for the Zymotic
diseases was 93, as compared with 67 in 1895; this gives a
Zymotic death rate of 3-1 per thousand.
In the following table the death rate and Zymotic deaths