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6
It is outside the power of Local Governing bodies to affect
the birth-rate, but it is within their power to reduce the
number of children who die in the first year of life. When
one considers that out of every 1,000 children born, 132 die in
the first year of life, in the smaller towns, it is apparent that
every Local Governing body should take every means in their
power to reduce this fearful waste of Infant life. What can
be done by a municipality in this direction, has been shown
by Huddersfield in the past year, which by combined effort
their death-rate has been reduced to half. In other words, a
saving of about 60 children has been effected in every 1,000
bom. In llford as I pointed out in 1904, and again during
the past year, a great part ot tLe death-rate is duo to want of
knowledge, and help in that direction, I nm more and more
convinced would be attended with beneficial results. Of
course, the problem is a very comjlex one, but in this
particular district education, or lack of it. is the main factor.
It must not be forgotten, too, that though we hear of the
deaths, we do not hear of the numbers of other babies who
are not thriving as they should do.
There has been no marked epidemic of any Infectious
disease during the past year. Scarlet Fever has been the
most prevalent; but, as can been seen by the spot map, it has
been fairly distributed throughout the district. Seeing how
rife this disease has been in surrounding districts, llford. may
congratulate itself on having got off so well. In this connection,
and also with regard to Diphtheria, the school
supervision is a great help, as large numbers of children are
excluded from school as soon as they show signs of sore throat,
and it is often very difficult to say where one disease ends and
the other begins. In the section on Schools I have included
some of the findings of the "Departmental Committee on
Medical Inspection in Schools" as there seems to be a good