[Report 1913] / Medical Officer of Health, Bournemouth County Borough.

  • Bournemouth (England). County Borough Council. nb2004301338.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1913] / Medical Officer of Health, Bournemouth County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of infants and multiply rapidly in milk. Vegetable matter decays much more rapidly in hot summer weather, and flies are much more abundant at that time for they breed in decaying refuse; so that there is a combination of conditions which is extremely favourable to the contamination of food, and especially of milk, by the germs of this disease. Apart from the more detailed methods of pre- venting the disease in infants, it is obvious that the prompt removal or the prompt burning of all vege- table house refuse are measures which, if adopted, will dim inish the disease and save the lives of many infants. The Bournemouth Health Authority have recently issued a poster advising householders to burn the vegetable refuse, and the work of the Public Health Department, allied with that of the Voluntary Association, should result in a wider knowledge of this subject. The statement that Bournemouth has a low infantile mortality is a relative one. The town has one of the lowest rates among the large towns, but the wastage of child life even at that low figure is far too great, and whilst the great natural advan- tages of Bournemouth and the efforts of its Council in the cause of hygiene have given it a finer record than that of other towns, there is need for further efforts so that the wastage of infant life may be made smaller yet. It was with this end in view that the Council recently adopted the Notification of Births Act, which will result in attention being given to those mothers who require advice and guidance in the upbringing of their infants. In many matters concerning infants, the timely advising of the mother by a trained nurse, working under medical supervision, may make the