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BREAST-FEEDING AFTER WEANING.
88 which have been cut down. that if
of Health, in a letter accompanying the memorandum referred to above, advises special attention on the part of medical ofticers of health to problems arising out of shortage of water-supply in districts unprovided with piped water.
Everyone knows, too,), Ministry
ash wand nicely cleaned they can n get an admirable result by giving it to hutch rabbitsif the hutch is large enough to take it. It is, perhaps, s, iworth noting, too, that these same invaluable experimental animals are peculiarly fond of hard, woody leaves-as, for example, holly, gorse, or hawthorn, and sometimes seem actually to prefer them to cabbage or milk-thistle. Ponies, also, are apt to be possessed of a devil or some curious appetite, and will set to work on big forest trees and kill them by cleaning off the bark and conducting tissues down to the hard wood. These and other examples of similar tastes suggest that there is something particularly good in the outer layers of trees, and it is natural to think that it probably resides in the young conducting tissues Of its precise nature rather than in the outer bark. it is idle to speculate. Perhaps the point will engage the attention of the experts in vitalimentation, who may be directed to an interesting note in the last number of Food and Cookery and the Catering World.
they want
an
-
CONSERVATION OF WATER-SUPPLY. A
conserving and supplementing existing supplies of water has been issued by the Ministry of Health to the county and district medical officers of health, together with copies of recent memoranda relating to chlorination and shortage of water. We have referred repeatedly to the various aspects of the problem presented by the droughts of 1921 and the beginning of 1922,1 and little needs to be said to emphasise the existing necessity for prevention of waste, which forms the first subject dealt with in MEMORANDUM on
the above-mentioned memorandum. Authorities are urged to consider the advisability of organising special measures for the detection and prevention of all forms of waste. Division of areas of supply into zones, in order to avoid unnecessarily high pressure, is suggested; public warnings against waste are advised, and favourable mention is made of the possibility of replacement of defective washers by water authorities, free of cost to the consumer. With reference to restriction of ordinary consumption, an average of 16 gallons per head per day (exclusive of water used for trade purposes) is stated to be quite adequate in most towns under present conditions ; in many places, however, the amount used is twice or thrice this figure, with no commensurate gain and much waste of pumping, power, and money. The use of potable water for manufacturing and sanitary purposes, when other supplies could be obtained, is discouraged, and the collection of rain-water by householders is strongly urged. Intermission of supply, whilst useful for saving water where houses contain storage cisterns, is not advised unless absolutely necessary. Wherever practicable, compensation water should be intermitted when not required for power or manufacturing purposes. As regards the supplement of existing supplies, the measures indicated for consideration are a pooling of the resources of neighbouring water authorities and employment of additional sources of supply, including water not usually intended for domestic use, but specially treated by means set out in Circular 241 of the Ministry of Health relating to chlorination. In this connexion it is not out of place to make mention of a precaution devised by the Health Department Laboratory of Chicago, U.S.A., for the protection of tourists and travellers on holiday in places where they cannot be assured of an altogether uncontaminated water-supply. Calcium hypochlorite tablets, containing each 20 to 30 mg. of chlorine, put up in glass phials and retaining their potency for about four weeks if kept lightly stoppered in a cool, dark place, are issued, together with directions for use, upon application at the City Hall. This solicitude for the health of the individual urban consumer should spur the rural authority to raise its standard of water-supply to that of the towns. Our own 1 THE LANCET, 1921, ii., 353, 668, 671, 1234; 1922, i., 145, 148, 448, 658.
BREAST-FEEDING AFTER WEANING. THE successful re-establishment of breast-feeding when the supply of maternal milk has failed, or when
child has been weaned for some other reason, has until recent years been regarded as an unlikely phenomenon. A member of the Central Midwives Board informs us that midwives often complain of the uselessness of attempting to enlist medical help in The exhibition of a cases of difficult breast-feeding. reputed galactagogue with a warning to the mother that she will probably have to resort to artificial feeding in the end is usually the net result of an appeal to a practitioner by midwife or mother. The results obtained in the re-establishment of breastfeeding after long periods of weaning by the simple methods in use at the Mothercraft Training Society, founded by Dr. F. Truby King in 1917, are remarkable and the institution, well-known among medical officers of welfare centres, deserves wider recognition by those in general practice than it has hitherto received. The following table, taken from the annual report of the society recently issued, gives some typical a
cases. :-
There are 3 beds for mothers and 20 cots available, and during the 17 months covered by the last report 146 infants and 72 mothers were admitted as inpatients and 609 new cases as out-patients, the total out-patient attendances amounting to 3523. The majority of these cases had been referred to the society for advice, especially with regard to breast-feeding. Other work done includes the training of fully qualified nurses, midwives, and previously untrained women in mothercraft ; simple practical courses are also arranged at regular intervals for young mothers or girls about to marry. Lectures and demonstrations are given to associations of midwives, health visitors, and so forth. The hon. medical director of the society is Dr. R. C. Jewesbury, while Dr. J. S Fairbairn acts as hon. consulting physician. We are informed that, should there be Rurticient demand, demonstrations for practitioners will be arranged at the house of bhe society. 29, Trebovir-road, Earl’s Court, S.W. 5, Mid in view of the excellent, results achieved we would urge our readers to avail themselves of the ’acilities offered. ____
THE
Voluntary Hospitals Commission have decided
conference of representatives of Local 3hospital Committees which will be held on Tuesday md Wednesday, July 18th and 19th, at the Ministry )f Health. It is hoped that all local hospital ommittees will be represented by their chairman md secretary, but other members of committees will )e welcome if they care to attend, and no limit will be )laced upon the number of representatives from any larticular committee. Cards of admission will only .0
convene a
sent to those persons whose names have been totined to the Commission not later than July 10th. )e
r
of Health, in a letter accompanying the memorandum referred to above, advises special attention on the part of medical ofticers of health to problems arising out of shortage of water-supply in districts unprovided with piped water.
Everyone knows, too,), Ministry
ash wand nicely cleaned they can n get an admirable result by giving it to hutch rabbitsif the hutch is large enough to take it. It is, perhaps, s, iworth noting, too, that these same invaluable experimental animals are peculiarly fond of hard, woody leaves-as, for example, holly, gorse, or hawthorn, and sometimes seem actually to prefer them to cabbage or milk-thistle. Ponies, also, are apt to be possessed of a devil or some curious appetite, and will set to work on big forest trees and kill them by cleaning off the bark and conducting tissues down to the hard wood. These and other examples of similar tastes suggest that there is something particularly good in the outer layers of trees, and it is natural to think that it probably resides in the young conducting tissues Of its precise nature rather than in the outer bark. it is idle to speculate. Perhaps the point will engage the attention of the experts in vitalimentation, who may be directed to an interesting note in the last number of Food and Cookery and the Catering World.
they want
an
-
CONSERVATION OF WATER-SUPPLY. A
conserving and supplementing existing supplies of water has been issued by the Ministry of Health to the county and district medical officers of health, together with copies of recent memoranda relating to chlorination and shortage of water. We have referred repeatedly to the various aspects of the problem presented by the droughts of 1921 and the beginning of 1922,1 and little needs to be said to emphasise the existing necessity for prevention of waste, which forms the first subject dealt with in MEMORANDUM on
the above-mentioned memorandum. Authorities are urged to consider the advisability of organising special measures for the detection and prevention of all forms of waste. Division of areas of supply into zones, in order to avoid unnecessarily high pressure, is suggested; public warnings against waste are advised, and favourable mention is made of the possibility of replacement of defective washers by water authorities, free of cost to the consumer. With reference to restriction of ordinary consumption, an average of 16 gallons per head per day (exclusive of water used for trade purposes) is stated to be quite adequate in most towns under present conditions ; in many places, however, the amount used is twice or thrice this figure, with no commensurate gain and much waste of pumping, power, and money. The use of potable water for manufacturing and sanitary purposes, when other supplies could be obtained, is discouraged, and the collection of rain-water by householders is strongly urged. Intermission of supply, whilst useful for saving water where houses contain storage cisterns, is not advised unless absolutely necessary. Wherever practicable, compensation water should be intermitted when not required for power or manufacturing purposes. As regards the supplement of existing supplies, the measures indicated for consideration are a pooling of the resources of neighbouring water authorities and employment of additional sources of supply, including water not usually intended for domestic use, but specially treated by means set out in Circular 241 of the Ministry of Health relating to chlorination. In this connexion it is not out of place to make mention of a precaution devised by the Health Department Laboratory of Chicago, U.S.A., for the protection of tourists and travellers on holiday in places where they cannot be assured of an altogether uncontaminated water-supply. Calcium hypochlorite tablets, containing each 20 to 30 mg. of chlorine, put up in glass phials and retaining their potency for about four weeks if kept lightly stoppered in a cool, dark place, are issued, together with directions for use, upon application at the City Hall. This solicitude for the health of the individual urban consumer should spur the rural authority to raise its standard of water-supply to that of the towns. Our own 1 THE LANCET, 1921, ii., 353, 668, 671, 1234; 1922, i., 145, 148, 448, 658.
BREAST-FEEDING AFTER WEANING. THE successful re-establishment of breast-feeding when the supply of maternal milk has failed, or when
child has been weaned for some other reason, has until recent years been regarded as an unlikely phenomenon. A member of the Central Midwives Board informs us that midwives often complain of the uselessness of attempting to enlist medical help in The exhibition of a cases of difficult breast-feeding. reputed galactagogue with a warning to the mother that she will probably have to resort to artificial feeding in the end is usually the net result of an appeal to a practitioner by midwife or mother. The results obtained in the re-establishment of breastfeeding after long periods of weaning by the simple methods in use at the Mothercraft Training Society, founded by Dr. F. Truby King in 1917, are remarkable and the institution, well-known among medical officers of welfare centres, deserves wider recognition by those in general practice than it has hitherto received. The following table, taken from the annual report of the society recently issued, gives some typical a
cases. :-
There are 3 beds for mothers and 20 cots available, and during the 17 months covered by the last report 146 infants and 72 mothers were admitted as inpatients and 609 new cases as out-patients, the total out-patient attendances amounting to 3523. The majority of these cases had been referred to the society for advice, especially with regard to breast-feeding. Other work done includes the training of fully qualified nurses, midwives, and previously untrained women in mothercraft ; simple practical courses are also arranged at regular intervals for young mothers or girls about to marry. Lectures and demonstrations are given to associations of midwives, health visitors, and so forth. The hon. medical director of the society is Dr. R. C. Jewesbury, while Dr. J. S Fairbairn acts as hon. consulting physician. We are informed that, should there be Rurticient demand, demonstrations for practitioners will be arranged at the house of bhe society. 29, Trebovir-road, Earl’s Court, S.W. 5, Mid in view of the excellent, results achieved we would urge our readers to avail themselves of the ’acilities offered. ____
THE
Voluntary Hospitals Commission have decided
conference of representatives of Local 3hospital Committees which will be held on Tuesday md Wednesday, July 18th and 19th, at the Ministry )f Health. It is hoped that all local hospital ommittees will be represented by their chairman md secretary, but other members of committees will )e welcome if they care to attend, and no limit will be )laced upon the number of representatives from any larticular committee. Cards of admission will only .0
convene a
sent to those persons whose names have been totined to the Commission not later than July 10th. )e
r