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(b) With these are commonly associated overcrowding
and uncleanliness.
(c) Alcoholic habits frequently result from living under
conditions of poverty, the converse also being true.
Poverty, uncleanliness, overcrowding, alcoholic indulgence
and disease are closely inter-related in vicious circles, the
starting point leading to excessive infant mortality not always
being the same.
12. The importance of the personal factor in the prevention
of infant mortality is very great.
13. The abandonment of breast-feeding without adequate
cause is a most important factor of excessive infant
mortality.
Considering the items, separately, in so far as they affect
our own district, I make the following annotations:—
(1) Defective Sanitation and Housing.—
No effort is spared by this Council or its Officers to
see that a high standard of sanitation prevails; not only are
all the provisions in every available Act of Parliament
brought to bear, but special provisions to this end are contained
in the Finchley Urban District Council Act, 1908—
a private' Act obtained by the Council.
The maintenance and improvement of existing dwellings
is a subject to which the greatest possible attention is paid,
and your action as regards the provision of Houses for tho
Working Classes is an earnest of your interest in the housing
conditions generally and, so far as I know, has called forth
the only adverse criticism that you are likely to do too much
rather than too little.
(2) Ours is not an industrial population, but the fact is
not generally appreciated that even in districts such as this a
very large number of women by adverse hap become the breadwinners
of the family and have to leave their homes, in many
cases, every day of the week to follow such occupations as
washerwomen, charwomen, and other menial employment.