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50
only, 6 breast milk and other food; none had Depot milk.
14 had fresh cow's milk, and 13 Nestle's condensed milk.
Deaths. Table VIII. shows the death-rate from Diarrhoea
in London and Woolwich in the summer quarter of every
year this century. Notification was adopted in Woolwich
in 1905, and has not been similarly carried out in any other
London Borough. The Table indicates that whereas, before
notification, Woolwich had a slightly higher Diarrhœa
mortality than London, since notification commenced the
Woolwich death-rate has decreased to a marked extent both
absolutely and compared with London. In 1910 the
Woolwich Diarrhoea mortality was only one-twentieth $he
average mortality of 1901-4, and only one-fifth as much
as in London in the same year.
There were only 4 deaths in the summer quarter, giving a
death-rate of 0.12, compared with 2.30, the average of
the years 1901-4, and with 0.57, the London death-rate.
There were, however, 11 deaths in the autumn quarter,
when the death-rate was 0.34, compared with 0.35 in
London. It is unusual for the deaths from Diarrhœa in
the autumn quarter to exceed those in the summer quarter.
The cool and rainy summer was favourable to a low
diarrhoea death-rate, but the existence of notification has
shown us that, even in the most favourable summers, a
large number of children suffer from this disease, although
usually in a mild form.
In my last report I attributed the reduction of diarrhœa
mortality to three causes, viz., notification, the Milk Depot,
and the Health Visitor. The second of these ceased to exist
in August.