[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wembley UDC 1904].

  • Wembley (London, England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wembley UDC 1904]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It is a well recognised fact that maternal nursing is becoming more and more impracticable and impossible, and consequently the majority of infants must be artificially reared. The failure to secure for the child a proper substitute-food arises, with a few, from neglect and from intemperance; with a great number it arises solely from ignorance. In previous Reports I have referred to the necessity of providing the child with the best and purest milk obtainable, and at a reasonable cost. Now I insist upon the knowledge of the proper modification of this milk being placed in the hands of those who have the care of the young. With a view to assisting in this direction to a small extent, I suggest that rules for the guidance of mothers be formulated in your Sanitary Department, examined and approved by a Specialist of note, and sent to the parents of every child born in the District, if necessary, through the Registrar, at the earliest date after the birth. I am aware that this will only touch the fringe of the subject, but I hope to remind you of it again at an early date. I notice that as a causation of death heart disease figures no less than nine times in the list—five times directly—four times indirectly. Evidence, if such were needed, of the stress of our modern artificial life! Cancer, or malignant disease as we prefer to call it, claimed six of our number—an excess of an previous year—but taking the mean of the last ten years, the average annual rate has been 3.1, so that we are not in one of those areas where cancer is said specially to prevail. It is to be regretted that we are still no nearer to any certain knowledge of its origin and causation, but of this we are assured by recent and eminent authority that this disease is not, relative to the population, really on the increase, nor is it, I am glad to state, any longer regarded as an hereditary disease. Four persons died from disease of the kidneys, four suddenly, of these two by accident, one a child by over¬ laying, one on the railway, the other one suicidal. Seven children died from intestinal or abdominal disorder, of which diarrhcea was the chief symptom. Three infants died from too early an introduction to life, two from measles. Two persons died apopletic, five from pulmonary disease, one from peritonitis and three from phthisis.