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9
enactments of the Act will be defeated if announcements of
births continue to be made in this imperfect fashion. That the
Act provides for summary proceedings against offenders, and
does not allow payment to be made for services in respect of
notification is an anachronism for which Legislators are
responsible, but it does not absolve the Council from carrying
out the provisions of the Act that they have adopted, and after
giving due warning to those concerned they will have no
alternative but to institute proceedings in the ordinary way,
therefore those medical practitioners who are not already
acquainted with the provisions and obligations of the Act
will do well to make a study of it.
In regard to the application of the Act in Beckenham,
it will doubtless prove a valuable adjunct to the efforts I have
made from time to time to reduce Infantile Mortality, for it
is only by instructions to poor parents at the earliest possible
moment, respecting the proper feeding and care of their
infants, that good results can be hoped for. Instructions
given after the child has reached the age of some weeks and
has passed a period of improper feeding and other aids to
ill health and untimely decease, are either not required by
reason of death or are much handicapped by lapse of time.
Infantile Mortality.
Reference to Table No. 5 will shew that of the 48 infants
who died before the age of one year, 21 did not live one month.
The Infantile Mortality rate has shown a steady decline
since 1904, when it was 126.8 per 1,000 births registered. Now
it is 71.2 per 1,000, the lowest by far since I have been Medical
Officer of Health. Ten years ago it was 136.6, and nine years
ago 144.4. For the following three years the lowest was 87.8
and the highest 129.6.
I hope that my efforts in regard to this question, which
have now extended over some years, are at last bearing fruit.
But it is not wise to be carried away by enthusiasm over what
appears to be a record year, as I have noticed before that a
high infantile mortality rate has been followed by a period
of low infantile mortality. What, however, is encouraging,