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93
one week), whilst in the case of the remaining three, the
milk did not suit, and other remedies (medicines) had to be
employed by the medical men in attendance.
These typical illustrations are taken from the register and
fairly represent all the cases dealt with. The results are
eminently satisfactory.
(b) Infants and children who have died (with particulars
as to the causes of death), whilst being fed
upon the depot milk.
These cases are fully dealt with in a former part of the
Report, and it will be noted that of the nine deaths, six
have been certified by the medical men in attendance as due
to epidemic diarrhoea—a disease which is now recognised to
be infectious and due to a germ or germs, which gain
entrance -into the body through the medium of food, or
otherwise. Milk has always been regarded as the medium
through which this disease has chiefly spread during the hot
weather, and, consequently, the comparatively few cases
that have occurred in connection with the 100 infants and
children fed upon the milk during the exceptionally hot
weather of July and August is satisfactory, showing that the
source of infection in the case of the depot-fed children was
not the milk, otherwise a very much larger proportion of the
infants and children would have been affected.
(c) Infants and children who, whilst taking the depot
milk, have suffered from epidemic diarrhoea.
Of the 100 infants and children fed upon the depot milk,
13 have suffered from epidemic diarrhoea during the hot
weather whilst taking the milk, and, of these 13, five died,
the rest recovering. Of the five deaths, four infants were
suffering from wasting, and one from weak digestion, at the
time they were first put upon the milk.
10.—Concluding remarks and lessons to be learnt from the
first six months working of the Lambeth Milk Depot.
The Lambeth Milk Depot is run on the lines of the French
type, viz. : strict medical supervision, discriminating and
careful distribution of the milk only to infants and children