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80
further contamination by careful storage, and how to mix the milk
in proportions suitable to the infant's requirements. She can be
taught how to keep an infant in good health by regular and judicious
feeding and attention to its bodily wants; how, by keeping her
house and yard clean, she may minimise the number of flies and
other pests that convey infected matter to the child. Such a
system is in course of time, certain to be attended with much
good.
The Woman Inspector's work might be supplemented by properly
organised lay help, and the co-operation of the district nurses in this
matter, would be most valuable. The distribution, too, of printed
advice of a simple kind would serve to fix the instruction so given
in the mother's mind. A sheet containing a warning on the subject
of diarrhcea, and setting out the steps to be taken to avoid the
disease, was widely distributed this summer, just before the
commencement of the outbreak, and was, I think, appreciated by
the people.
Improvements in Sanitary Conditions. It is obviously
impossible that the Council should undertake the wholesale remedy,
by active measures, of such faulty conditions as were found in the
people's houses during the investigation.
Reforms of this kind are most difficult to bring about except by
a slow process of education. Poverty is a severe check to enterprise,
and the discouraging effect that this evil has on the desire for
better things amongst our poorest, must be admitted. Moreover,
there are many practical difficulties in the way of securing a high
standard of cleanliness in small houses that should be taken into
account, and the task of performing her house work efficiently and
at the same time attending to the wants of several young children
and perhaps an infant, throws a heavy strain on the physical resources
of the artizan's wife.
It is all the more necessary, therefore, that she should receive as
much help and encouragement as possible in her efforts to keep her