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11
authorities of appointing lady inspectors, who may be reinforced
by voluntary assistants, to pay nursing visits, deserves serious
consideration, as the results appear to be most encouraging.
The Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras has drawn
attention to the success attained by this method in Preston,
where infantile mortality has always been notoriously high.
Here since the appointment of lady inspectors to advise mothers,
there has been a marked fall in the mortality, which compares
most favourably with that of towns where milk depots have been
established, as the following figures for 1897 and 1904, in which
years the meteorological conditions were similar, show.
Deaths of Infants.
Decrease per
1,000 births.
3rd Quarter,
3rd Quarter,
1897.
1904.
Preston (Lady Inspectors)
449
208
241
Liverpool (Milk Depot)
329
320
9
St. Helen's (Milk Depot)
294
256
38
Battersea (Milk Depot)
243
204
39
London
243
208
35
Deaths of Illegitimate Infants.
70 of the children who died before attaining the age of one
year were illegitimate; the mortality among them being in the
proportion of 262 deaths to every 1.000 deaths.
Deaths of Children under five years of age.
Between the ages of one and five years 315 deaths were
recorded, so that the deaths of children under the age of five years
numbered 1,067, or 45.5 per cent. of the total number. These
deaths were equivalent to an annual rate of 53.9 per 1,000 of the
population estimated to be living at that age.
Insurance of Infants
Certificates under the Friendly Societies Acts were issued in
respect of 558 children under the age of five years, 52.3 per cent.
of the children dying at this age period being insured.