Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Monday 01 March 1909
Doncaster Rural District.
Medical Officer’s Comprehensive Report.
The medical report for the Doncaster rural district, presented by Dr. McLean, contains some remarkable and striking facts. There are two distinct industrial areas, agriculcural and coal mining.
At present there are three collieries in operation, three in course of construction, and at least three others in early contemplation, and developments of such a character are rapidly changing the aspect of the district, as the Medical Officer significantly adds, for letter or worse.”
Denaby is the black spot, and has unenviable record for most things. The excess of births over deaths for the whole district is 620. The average birth-rate is 31.5; at Denaby it was 44.3; the average death-rate is 14.1, at Denaby 17.6; the infantile death-rate was 142.7, Denaby 208. Bawtry, a purely agricultural district, has the lowest rate. Its birth rate was 19.0, and death-rate 8.1.
The infantile rate generally, though showing a satisfactory reduction, is still too high, and the doctor urges that in many cases, with average care and attention the parents, many deaths might avoided. He regrets that our schools not teach the older children the elementary principles of health. In the. last year school attendance girls might instructed housework, cookery, laundrywork, and cleaning with greater advantage, than the present so-called advanced educational method?. He commends the system carried cut in Switzerland, where the children are taught to take an interest in the practical affairs life rather than preparing specimen tasks for an inspector. He suggests the appointment of female health visitor for the large mining districts, and looking at the preventable and other diseases incident to child life, the suggestion worth consideration.
Infantile diarrhoea caused 16 deaths, and from infective enteritis there were 40 deaths. In the joint township of Denaby Main and New Conisborough 41 cases of typhoid were notified. At Conisborough and Denaby the supply of water has been ample. The water is very hard, but. otherwise good quality, and the question of softening the water is one which might well considered.
At the Woodlands model village, where 577 houses have been erected, the water is supplied by the Brodsworth Colliery Co., but, it is also hard. A complete system of sewers has been laid, with outlet at the site of the proposed sewage disposal works. The new scheme of water supply at Barmbro’ has, for the present, been abandoned, the existing supply having been ample. Voluntarv notification of pulmonary cases has proved a failure, not a single case having been reported, and the doctor is in favour of compulsory notification. With regard to the feeding of infants,
Dr. McLean gives statistics which show that the chances of survival of a breast-fed child are nearly thrice that of one which is bottle-fed, and more than six times that of one which brought up one or other of the patent artificial foods.
The chief features of the year were that there was the lowest rainfall since 1905, the small amount of wind, the severe frosts in the first part January, that June was one of the driest in recent years, July the wettest since 1903, September 30 was the hottest day for this date on record, the high temperature in the early part of October and the mildness of December, until the last few days, whereas on the 30th 22 degrees of frost were registered.
Appended are reports from the Sanitary Surveyor (Mr. W. R. Crabtree) and the recently appointed sanitary inspector (Mr. I. R. Dodds). The latter had inspected 103 cowkeepers’ premises and 30 slaughter-houses, whilst 425 house-to-house inspections have been made, and 127 premises disinfected.