62 ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION 



Let health authorities but enter the homes of our 

 people in the proper manner, and by means of com- 

 petent officers vested with authority and backed with 

 the machinery necessary for this, the highest of all 

 preventive work, and there will be saved to the nation 

 an army of children, there will be such a moral and 

 social uplift that we will wonder why this as yet 

 untrodden field of health work was not entered into 

 long ago. 



MUNICIPALITIES AND INFANT LIFE. 

 BY RICHARD CATON, M.D., LL.D. 



Liverpool. 



THE last half century has witnessed a remarkable 

 awakening among municipalities as to the responsi- 

 bility resting upon them for the health and life of the 

 people. 



The change that some of us have witnessed in our 

 own lifetime is marvellous and full of encouragement 

 for the future ; one of its phases is solicitude for the 

 well-being of infancy and childhood. 



I propose briefly to trace some of the efforts of 

 one municipality that of Liverpool to guard and 

 protect its infant citizens at the time of their entrance 

 into this world, and during the earlier steps of their 

 progress through it. Time and space will not allow 

 me to go beyond the period of infancy. The changes 

 I have to narrate are largely the result of the labours 

 of our Health Committee and of our excellent 

 Medical Officer of Health and his staff. Many of 

 the details are taken from Dr. Hope's Reports. 



I am afraid we have not as yet done much in the 

 infants' interest to help the poor woman who is about 

 to become a mother by amending her diet and 

 guarding her from too arduous manual labour. This 

 has been attempted in France ; but we have tried 



