Report of the Commission appointed to enquire into and report upon the general and infantile mortality; together with Minutes of the Sittings, Evidence of Witnesses, &c.

British Guiana.

Date:: 1906

Credit: Report of the Commission appointed to enquire into and report upon the general and infantile mortality; together with Minutes of the Sittings, Evidence of Witnesses, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

129/268 (page 19)

$Q. 218. Ill what way ?—A. It seems that the woman can't i2,et the alh)\\'ance. Q. ^lO. They do get it ?—A. To a very limited extent. Mr. ^Vbraham : .V hirge nuinher of cases come before the Court wliere a woman gets an orih'r and not getting th(' money brings tlie man ))efore the Court to recover tlic amount due. In the majority of these ca.sos an order is made for the man to pay within a cei'tain time, and if he does not lie goes to jail. We seldom have a case oi a man going to jail, however, as he almost always pays up. AV^itness ; Yes, but with the huge number of illegitimate children here the Court would not have time to do other work. Mr. ^Vljrahani : Every Satiuday is devoted to that type of cases. jMr. Garnett : I'erha])s one i-eason world be that Axliercas in Ib'itish ( luiana the proportion of illegitimate chihh'cn is 66 per cent., in England it is :> ] per cent. Illegitimacy is more or less a dis- grace at home, and the conse(juence is that the father looks after the motliei' Avhen pregnant. Witness : Exactly ; the mother at liome gets her support while the mother here does not. By the Surgeon Genera i, : Q. 'i-iO. Do you consitler that the mother in these cases is not in the same position as she is at home, ^he can recover from the father, and I take it the law is the same ?—A. She can recover if she can get hold of the man. I think there must l)e some diHiculty from the comjiaratively small nuinl)er of claims for maintenance made here compared with the huge number of illegitimate children. The Chairman : Tractically illegiti- macy at home arises from what may be called errors of judgment, whereas here it arises from concubinage. The Surgeon General : That is so ; and I should not like it to go forth to the world that we have not got the same law here as in England. 1 take it the mother has exactly the same facilities for making a father support the child as she has at home, jMr. Al:»raham ; The law is exactly the same. The Surgeon General: I quite realise there is a ditterence, because the great majority of these women live in con- cubinage. It is a common thing, and if w e knew the number of illegitimate chil- dren born in concubinage, and not as accidents wc wouhl be able to c()mpar(^ the two. There is no system in England cori'csponding to the system hefc, w here the people live in open concubinage. Mr. Abraham : And belie\e theniseh es man and wife : The Surgeon General ; That may account foi' a large proportion of mothers not a])pearing before the C(nirt, because , these men do su|)p(n't their children. Mr. Hill: Avery important point in connection with illegitimacy here is that many poor women luu e to give up their only means of su})port, perhaps three , months l)efore the child is boi-n. and they do not get the necessary assistance fi'om the i-eputed father. The women suffer from malnuti'ition at a time immediately pre- ceding the birth of the child. It is only natural from a medical point of \ iew that the child slionld l»e liorn weakh'. The Chairman : In Barbados the sys- tem of eoncubinage is moi-e (Unel()})ed than here, and yet the death-rate is ID S, com])ar(Ml with ;)4 heiw \\'e had an ex])i'ession of opinion last week that the j death-rate in Georgetown was nf)t exces- sive for a ti'opical place. 1 have here a. list which shows that the death-rate in Ceylon ^vas '2()\), in Hongkong, '21 7, in Mauritius,:>S, in Sevchelles, lO'G, Sierra Eeoue, 2:5-1', Gold' ('oast, 20-4, Jiritish Honduras, 27*2, Jamaica, 22 2, Eeewaro i Islands, ;57'6, Barljados, 10'7. Grenada, 2:'), and St. Lucia, 22. In view of these i hgures I cannot think that the mortality in Georgetown is not excessive. AVliat is your opinion ? Witness : 1 tliiid; it is excessi\-e. By Mr. Anj;.\nAM : (}. 221. The median age of negroes in the Cnited S(;ites is lO'I years, fonr \('ars below that of the whites, and it is held that the (liHei'eiu-(> is closely connected [ with the liigh birth-rate and high death- I'ato of the negroes. Would that have j any Ijearing on tlie mortality in this colony ?—A.. T should not like to express an opinion u|)on that. 222. In tlie annual lepoi t of Di-. I ]\enw ooil. medical olliccr <_if health for$