Report of the Health Officer, Corporation of Madras Health Department.

  • Madras (India). Health Department
Date:
[1917]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Health Officer, Corporation of Madras Health Department. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    health, her capacity in domesticity, and her knowledge of infant care and management.’^ And again, “ the principal operating influence is the ignorance of the mother and the remedy is the education of the mother. There seems to be no doubt that each one of these causes operates to a certain extent, and these causes are all closely inter-related in a vicious circle, the starting point leading to excessive infant mortality not always being the same. No measure of relief can be of real or lasting benefit unless directed against all the operative causes. Some are apt to make a fetish of “ maternal ignorance” as quoted above ; but is there any reason to believe that rural mothers, among whose infants mortality is low, are less ignorant or better educated than their town sisters, among whose infants mortality is high ? The comfortable doctrine of “ maternal 1 ignorance ” embodies an aspect of truth, but it is mischievous when it implies, as is often said, that what is chiefly required is the distribu¬ tion of leaflets of advice, or the giving of theoretical instructions as to matters of personal hygiene or health literature generally. Of what avail is the distribution of health litera¬ ture when the great majority of those for whom it is intended cannot read ? The Corporation, as already stated, has started during the year under report an experimental scheme of * maternity benefit and child welfare ', with the object of bringing tl clean midwifery within the easy reach of every expectant woman of the poorer classes. The work is at present limited to one District in the City, but its success or failure mainly depends upon the amount of support it receives from the public. Poverty is the root cause of infant mortality, while all other causes are auxiliary to it. But the removal of poverty is- not primarily within the province of the sanitarian. He has to do the best he can under the circumstances, piously praying all the while that poverty may soon be abolished from the world of mortals, or at least from that portion of the world where he has his particu¬ lar field of work. The working class mother more often gives her infant the supremely important , breast-feeding than does the mother in other stations of life ; and for Milk. these latter a supply of pure milk is of supreme importance. Bottle- fed babies do not thrive so well as those that are breast-fed, for the simple reason that the milk available is filthy, stale, or half fermented. The very qualities which make milk good food for mankind tend to make it likewise a good food for microbes ; and many an epidemic especially among infants, has been traced to impure milk. The prob¬ lem of milk-supply continues to be unsolved. Mr. Allen Carruth has recently made an elaborate study of this question as it affects the City and the following are a few of his findings : u Milk production in the City of Madras is in a very unsatisfactory condition. There is nothing to show that the industry ever was efficient .... The cattle have been bred with the sole object of producing draught animals, the milk yield being of a secondary consideration. The position of the Madras Dairyman with all his faults is seen to be an impossible one. He cannot breed the special stock required, nor do any do this for him. From this condition of things combined with the fact that there are no penalties for adulteration and the public demand a large measure for a small sum, springs the whole system of systematic adulteration and fraud. “ If milk is to be supplied unadulterated, then to make production economicah (a) the price must be increased or (b) better business methods introduced, and good milking stock bred. If the price is increased, comparatively few will be able to afford it, thus this remedy may be dismissed. With better business methods and an improved
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