[Report 1908] / Medical Officer of Health, Durham County Palatine / County Council.

  • Durham (England : County). Council.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1908] / Medical Officer of Health, Durham County Palatine / County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/176 (page 7)
    Brandon, Houghton-le-Spring, and Stanley. Among the rural districts the highest rates were 190 in Houghton-le-Spring (Northern Division) and 176 in Chester-le-Street. In many of the district health reports reference is made at more or less length to the subject of infant mortality; thus, in the report for Chester-le-Street Rural District, Dr. Taylor, comment- ing on the high infant mortality rate, says :— “ The very great increase, as I have already pointed out, has “been caused by infantile diarrhoea, which is always prevalent ■ a “ during hot weather, but has been more than usually prevalent “ during this year. Other and more regular causes of this class of “ deaths I went fully into in my last report, and need not recapitu- “ late this year. The aim of your Council should be in the future, “as in the pas't, the abolition of ashpit-privies, places which “ disseminate injurious organisms, the paving of dank, insanitary “ back yards, and the improvement of the houses of the people. “ The people themselves can do much, but progress in cleanliness “ is slow, very slow, amongst the people in general. “ Look at scores and scores of these back yards, the worst in “ structure adjoining the worst houses, see the filthy condition of “ the ground there, covered with fcecal matter of the children, the “ parents too lazy and too careless to see and enforce their children “ using the proper places and for which purpose the ground in the “ vicinity of the house is used. In addition to this pollution, the “ yard is too often the dwelling-place of poultry, rabbits or dogs, “ all polluting the soil and rendering it the very best breeding “ place of those very organisms which kill the young infants of the “ community.” Dr. Stobo in alluding to the high infant mortality rate of 230 per 1,000 births in the parish of Tunstall, in the Sunderland rural district, strongly condemns the practice of mothers who insist on taking out young children in the night air, in all weathers, and frequently also insufficiently clothed ; and dealing with the large number of deaths from debility and allied affections Dr. Stobo says Generally speaking the Infant mortality. Causes of high infant mortality.