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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1698. 15
would nevertheless be a desirable step, as it would then be possible to make sure that a
patient was not spreading the disease, and systematic disinfection of his surroundings
could be undertaken. Disinfection after deaths from phthisis is now undertaken by
your Vestry and urged upon parishioners. It would be advisable to distribute among
your parishioners printed forms containing special information on this subject couched
in plain and simple language.
(c) Supervision of Meat and Milk Supply.—Although the subject of the
transmission of phthisis from the lower animals to man is still more or less obscure,
yet it seems hardly logical to attempt to stamp out the disease in man and yet allow
him to go on consuming the flesh and milk of infected animals. The same bacillus
causes tuberculosis in both instances. That it may be transmitted in an active or
living state in the milk of an infected cow is known, and it is also an indisputable
fact that in the United Kingdom many cows suffer from tuberculosis. Moreover, an
undue proportion of infants, who are largely fed with raw milk, are affected with the
disease. It would be well, therefore, in my opinion, for your Authority to consider
carefully all measures that tend to the exclusion of the flesh or milk of tubercular
animals from the food supply of the parishioners.
flortality of Infants and Children.
The death-rates of infants under one year, and of children under five years, afford
valuable indirect evidence of the sanitary well-being of a community.
During 1898 the number of infants who died within the first year of life in St.
George's was 402. These figures give the high rate of 188 deaths to every 1,000
births in St. George's, as compared with 167 deaths per 1,000 births for London.
The average rate for the years 1892 to 1898 for St. George's was 189, as against 162
for London.
Of a total of 1,470 deaths at all ages in St. George's 667 occurred under five
years, which gives the large percentage of 45 4 of the total number of deaths. It is
well known to specialists in children's diseases that " wasting" constitutes one of the
commonest causes of death among infants. Thousands of children die every year in
London simply because they are fed on food which they cannot digest, and which
acts as an irritant to the stomach and intestines.
The following are the most prominent diseases causing the infant mortality under
one vear of ase :—
TABLE X.
Deaths
1894.
1895.
1896.
1897.
1898.
Diarrhœa
54
41
35
84
73
Tabes Mesenterica (bowel phthisis)
10
38
27
51
30
56
22
28
13
30
Tubercular Meningitis, Hydrocephalus
12
10
14
4
14
Other Tubercular & Scrof ulous Diseases
16
14
12
2
Premature Birth
44
39
28
31
29
Convulsions
63
69
42
29
37
Bronchitis
44
40
5
41
27
Pneumonia
16
38
38
30
30
Dentition
22
35
23
10
8
Whooping Cough
29
30
26
15
11
Suffocation in bed
20
16
15
13
29
Debility, Atrophy, and Inanition
88
69
65
45
32
All Other causes
8
24
44
74
96
Total
426
452
377
400
402