London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Edmonton 1905
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Edmonton]
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child had reached the age of six months in the case of 367 of the
infants who survived until that age.
The following table sets out the method of feeding adopted and
its results in three groups of infants under 6 months of age, viz.:—
367 survivors at that age, 27 who died from diarrhceal diseases
before reaching the six months, and 161 who died from all causes
before that age.
For convenience of comparison, the results are shown in percentages:—
| Form of Food. | Percentage of Survivors visited at 6th month. | Percentage of Diarrhoea deaths under 6 months. | Percentage of deaths from all causes under six months. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breast fed alone | 76.3 | 11.1 | 47.2 |
| Other forms of Food | 23.7 | 88.9 | 52.8 |
The enormous advantage in the struggle for existence possessed
by a breast fed infant over one artificially fed, is clearly shown in this
table. The advantage is, of course, most apparent where diarrhceal
diseases have to be encountered, and nearly nine-tenths of the
victims from these food-borne maladies were found to have been
artificially fed.
Zymotic Death Rate. This rate is a statement of the
number of deaths from the seven principal zymotic diseases per
1,000 of the population. There were 129 deaths from these diseases
in the district during the year, and the zymotic death rate is therefore
2.36, as compared with 3.87 in the previous year. This reduction
is due almost entirely to the great decrease in the number of deaths
from diarrhoea. The zymotic death rate in London was 171, in the
76 gieat towns i-88, and in England and Wales 1.94.