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52
in cases where no harm can be proved to have followed from
their neglect.
F. H. Champneys, M.D., F. R.C.P.,
Chairman of the Central Midwives Board.
Infant Mortality.—Much has been done of recent years to
inspire interest in the question of providing the best means of
combating with the great waste of infant life, and although the recent
summers have been very favourable to the newly born, there is little
doubt some of the improvement which has taken place in the infant
mortality rate has been the result of painstaking visitation and the
steady infusion of knowledge.
Infant mortality is usually recorded in comparison with the
number of births. The total number of infants who died before they
reached the age of one year during 1910 was 86G, being 212 fewer
than in 1909. This is equivalent to an infant death-rate of 100 per
1,000 births. The average rate during the past ten years 1900-1909
was 151 per 1,000 births. Nearly one-fifth of these infants died
within a week of birth, and one-third within a month.
Notification of Births Act, 1907.—The adoption of this
Act by the Council on 14th January, 1908, received the sanction of
the Local Government Board and came into operation in the Borough
on 9th March, 1908.
The Act provides for the notification in writing of every birth,
whether still-born or otherwise, to the Medical Officer of Health
within 36 horns of its occurrence by the father if he is actually
residing in the house or by any person in attendance upon the
mother at the time of or within six hours after the birth. The Act
also provides for the inspection by the Registrars of Births and