London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Woolwich 1909

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Woolwich]

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112
Summary of Inspections.
Visits to houses after notifications of births 1699
Re-visits 299
Visits after infant deaths 79
Visits re Zymotic Enteritis 155
Revisits 43
Visits to Depot-fed infants 703
Special visits 59
Infants weighed at Milk Depot 1077
Reported to District Inspectors
Structural defects 16
Dirty interior walls 10
Overcrowding 3
Other matters 16
In 1907 the Home Office requested that special enquiries
should be made in the different sanitary areas with regard to
births occurring in 1908, with a view to ascertaining the relation
between infant mortality, and the industrial employment
of mothers. Woolwich has a low percentage of occupied
married women, but it was thought that the comparison of
results obtained in this Borough, and in other districts where
similar conditions prevail, with those obtained in towns with
a high percentage of occupied married women, would be useful.
The inquiry commenced on January 1st, 1908, and lasted
until the end of 1909. River ward was chosen as being on the
whole the most suitable, and altogether 182 investigations were
made. This does not represent the total number of births
occurring in that ward during 1908. Some were in houses
where it was not deemed advisable to visit. In some cases
the people had removed before the first visit could be paid, and
in some instances the full inquiries could not be made. The