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25
that through not having a hot dry summer has favoured the
absence of Summer Diarrhœa amongst children, which also
has had its share in keeping the death-rate down.
On the 25th May, 1909, the Council adopted the Notification
of Births Act, and in June appointed Miss L. Radford,
Health Visitor, at a salary of £85 per annum, the Education
Authority contributing two-thirds of her salary to carry out
duties in connection with the schools; the other one-third
being contributed for her work under this Act. So that the
adoption of this Act only costs the Council £28 6s. 8d. a
year for salary, and a small sum for printed matter, etc.
Miss Radford has worked exceedingly hard, and has carried
out her duties with tact and discretion. Her assistance has
undoubtedly had a beneficial effect on this rate, and 1
have hopes of getting this rate down to 50 in normal years.
This seems, perhaps, rather extravagent, but in a former
Annual Report I mentioned the hope of getting this figure
well below 100. At that time a rate of 68 seemed out of
the question, so that a rate of 50 may not be unattainable
after all.
On examining the chart on the opposite page it will be
seen that deaths are classified into Preventable, Non-Preventable,
and Doubtfully-Preventable Diseases. Of course,
this is only a provisional classification, and is open to alteration
as circumstances change. Premature births are classified
as non-preventable. At the present time, and speaking
broadly, this is true, but some premature births are undoubtedly
preventable, and some means later of dealing with these
may be evolved.
Of the total 112 deaths, three are due to overlaying, and
these, without doubt, should be preventable.