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disinfected for verminous conditions. It is much more
practical to get new bedding substituted where possible.
Very little difficulty is experienced in getting parents to
accomplish this instead of having to submit to the disgrace
of the visit of the disinfecting van at the house for all the
neighbourhood to see and comment upon.
With better financial conditions, many of the homes I
almost despaired of have become improved almost beyond
belief, which goes to prove very emphatically that if we want
to eliminate the slum type of human being and the slum type
of home, the surest and quickest way is to give the workman
a good living wage. It is only natural that wives and mothers
get tired of struggling against a tide of difficulties which every
day threatens to engulf them. One endless struggle of bootbuying
and repairing, clothes wanted, rent and coal to be
paid for, the pawnbroker in possession of the bedding and
spare clothing. With more wages coming in, all these difficulties
disappear as if by magic, and the housewife begins to
buy comforts for her family and home which never could have
been afforded before. She gradually improves in health and
spirits and is anxious to make her surroundings correspond
with her own improvement.
50. The following is Miss FitzGerald's report:—
Summary of Inspections.
Visits to houses after notification of births 1300
Re-visits 225
Visits re infant deaths 37
Domiciliary visits to children attending Consultation 304
Zymotic Enteritis cases investigated, including re-visits 201
Tuberculous cases 103
Ophthalmia Neonatorum 31
Ophthalmia (reported by schools) 12