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45 1907
has been 135 per 1,000 births; nor of Tollington, where it has been 129, nor
yet of Tufnell, where it has been 126. There can be no doubt that these rates
are excessive and that therefore something should be done, some endeavour
made, by instruction to mothers, to reduce them. The Borough Council in
their wisdom, have, however, declined to adopt their Medical Officer of Health's
recommendation with respect to the prevention of the excessive infantile
mortality in the borough so far as the appointment of trained, qualified, and
paid lady health visitors is concerned, and, therefore, the undue mortality
among infants must continue unchecked. It is a sad thought, and one to
cause serious reflection, that a body of business men could arrive at the
conclusion, with the report of the Medical Officer of Health on the Prevention
of Infantile Mortality before them, that there was no need for paid health
visitors. It has been said by one or at most two members of the Council
that if that report had put before them facts and figures, and had not been an
appeal to their sentiment, they would have considered them as business men.
But surely this statement is incorrect and, therefore, misleading, for the report
literally teems with facts and figures respecting the deaths of infants, and
traces back nearly all their ailments to their original or most probable causes.
As to the sentiment of that report, there is no need for apology, because
it is absolutely impossible for any man who has been brought into close contact
with the awful ignorance that leads to the piteous, painful, and unnecessary
deaths of infants, to write about them without having his feelings moved
and his sympathies aroused and without endeavouring to arouse similar
feelings and sympathies in the hearts of those who are ignorant of the facts.
Indeed, if this were not so, then the following lines, in the slightly altered
words of Shakespeare, might be applied, and rightly applied, to the Medical
Officer of Health :—
The man that hath no feeling in himself,
Nor is not moved with needless infant ills,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus :
Let no such man be trusted.
The Medical Officer of Health, therefore, sees no reason to regret his
appeal to the sentiment, as well as to the common sense of the Council,
although he regrets to find that there are one or two gentlemen who object to
it. Doubtless they forget that it is sentiment rules, and has ruled, the kingdoms
of this world, and that it is this same feeling which induces all nationalities to
be loyal to the flag. Sentiment is the cement which binds families,
communities and nations together, who without it would be nomads, each
individual a law unto himself and preying on the other.