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36
Appended to this report will be found a copy of the pamphlet
entitled, "Advice to Mothers on General Health and Feeding of
Infants" which was printed by order of the Council and distributed
in the month of June among close on 1,000 families in those localities
where the disease has hitherto been most prevalent. Since then a
copy has been given to the mother of every newly born child in the
district and the chief points in the management of her infant
have, at the same time, been explained to her by the Woman
Inspector. Great stress has been laid on the all-important fact that
breast feeding is the only method by which a child can be fed
without the gravest risks to life or the impairment of its future
development and health. A scheme of artificial feeding is set out
in the pamphlet, only for the guidance of those to whom breast
feeding is a physical impossibility.
Influenza. Nine deaths were registered from this cause, compared
with 8, 2, and 10 in the three preceding years. The death
rate from the disease is 0.16 per 1,000.
Phthisis and other Tuberculous Diseases. The deaths
from phthisis numbered 42, as compared with 44, 58, and 71 in the
three preceding years. The death rate from the disease is therefore
0.76 per 1,000, which is little over one-half the average rate of the
phthisis mortality for the preceding 10 years. Of these deaths 9
occurred among residents of the district in Edmonton Workhouse.
The total deaths from phthisis in public institutions in the district
numbered 38.
The other tuberculous diseases together accounted for 34 deaths,
giving a death rate of 0-62 per 1,000. In this way tuberculosis
contributed a total death rate of 1.38 per 1,000 living, or a little
over 10 per cent. of all the deaths. This is an improvement on the
figures for last year, when the tuberculosis deaths were as much as
13 per cent. of the total from all causes.
In the absence of any system of notification the work done in
connection with phthisis is confined to visiting those houses where