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and Maternity Home facilities that we must look to further reduction
in our infant mortality.
Serious midwifery operations are undertaken in private houses
often under such adverse conditions that no doctor would
dream of performing other surgical operations of less severity.
Apart from the chance of loss of life, and still greater
chance of loss of health to the woman, the result is too
frequently the birth of a dead or weakly infant. With the
growth of Maternity Hospital accommodation, it is to be hoped
that in the near future women will have the right to have such
operations performed in as ideal conditions as would any other
surgical operation be carried out, and with the growth of antenatal
work these operations will be reduced to a minimum.
The Maternity Home at Ilford has proved its usefulness,
although its work has been carried out under conditions prejudicial
to the aims of such an institution. It is, therefore, a
considerable satisfaction to know that the provision of a modern
Maternity Home will be accomplished within the course of a
few months.
A District Midwife has been appointed, and in Miss Butcher
the Council have found a lady who has earned the praises of all
who have engaged her services. The correlation of her work with
that of the Maternity Home is likely to prove of great benefit to
the district.
(2) The Zymotic diseases death-rate (or death-rate of the
chief infectious diseases), is the lowest ever recorded for the
district. The death-rate is .26 compared with 2.2 in 1904. Unfortunately,
the control of infectious diseases is still an unsatisfactory
problem. Isolation Hospitals cannot much limit their spread,
for we are still ignorant of the bacteria causing such diseases as
Scarlet Fever, while as regards the "carrier" problem, which must
be dealt with before we can eliminate diphtheria, we are still very
much in the dark.
It was once thought that the "Milne" treatment practised
at the Barnardo.s Homes by the late Dr. Milne would render
Isolation Hospitals unnecessary. A detailed investigation of the
results by Dr. Gushue-Taylor has proved that the method is an
unsound one. His conclusions are that the treatment "(a) does
not prevent the occurrence of return cases, (b) does not prevent
the infection spreading to susceptible patients and attendants
during the course of treatment, (c) does not prevent secondary
complications."
Such conclusions, which were published in the "Lancet," and
are based on statistics extending over 18 years, will not inspire
Local Authorities to adopt the methods mentioned.
If, however, Isolation Hospitals cannot claim to have greatly
limited the spread of Infectious Disease there is no doubt as to