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various times been conducted by others, and always
with good attendances and good results, and
now-a-days the police, railwaymen, firemen, factory
workers and others are largely instructed. In due
time nursing lectures were given, though in this
district I have not heard of any for some time, but if
a course of nursing lectures together with hygiene
and the rearing of infants were given, at very
nominal fees, in the districts where the working
classes mostly live, and an effort made by district
visitors, employers of labour, and the many workers
there are, to arrange for lectures and to secure
attendances—and this might be done, if thought advisable,
under the auspices of this Council—then I
am confident that nothing but good could result, and
they would be a fitting and extremely useful sequel
to the popular Ambulance Classes.
Dealing with the deaths under 1 year of age, I
would ask a reference to Table I., which shows the
number of these deaths year by year for the last 10
years, and it is very satisfactory to find that this last
year was by far the most favourable recorded, as the
number of deaths (18) compares with an average of 32.3
for the preceding nine years, and the mortality rate
is 56 as compared with 128 for England and Wales.
The causes of these deaths are shown on Table V.
A notable feature is that only one death at
that age is due to diarrhœa. Ratepayers should
take these favourable figures as largely the result of
the excellent sanitary work that has been in progress
under the direction of the Council for the last ten
8