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14
At the Congress of the Sanitary Institute held at Glasgow during
the year, a wide divergence of opinion on this question was exhibited
by the speakers, most of whom have had many years of experience in
Public Health and other similar work, some giving as a standard rate
to be sought after of from 80 to 100 per thousand births for other than
small urban or rural districts, while others looked upon this as
altogether an idealistic standard, and thought that any rate up to 150
was not unreasonable.
Personally, I am of opinion that a rate of from 80 to 100 per
thousand at the most for Wimbledon is what we should aim at, and
that we should not be content until this is attained.
That the causes for this high infantile mortality are many and
varied is admitted, some of the most important of which are influences
which produce their results mainly through their effects on the mother,
such as.:—
Intemperance and deficient feeding,
Insanitary surroundings,
Early and improvident marriage,
Others have their effect direct upon the infant as:—
Ignorance or carelessness on the part of the mother, leading
to improper feeding,
Undue exposure of young infants when suffering or recovering
from common Zymotic Diseases, such as Measles or
Whooping Cough.
Insanitary condition of home and surroundings, not only in
those cases which can be dealt with under the nuisances
clauses of the Public Health Acts, such as defective
drains and sanitary conveniences, accumulations of
manure, garbage and refuse of various kinds, but the
more common domestic insanitary condition such as
dirty house, floors, tables, cooking utensils, sinks and the
strewing of garbage, litter and refuse about the dwelling,
dirty and closed windows (the former keeping out light
and sunshine, the latter preventing proper ventilation of
the rooms).
Meteorological conditions. These have the most far-reaching
effects on the prevalence or otherwise of "summer
diarrhœa."