Mr. VIVIANasked the Lord Advocate if he will state how many local authorities 778W have adopted the Notification of Births Act in Scotland, the names of such local authorities, and what diminution in the infant death rate under one year has taken place?
§ Mr. UREI am informed that twenty-three local authorities in Scotland have already adopted the Act referred to, while four have resolved to do so this year. The infantile mortality rate depends so much upon the yearly weather conditions and the incidence of epidemic disease that it is not as yet considered safe to base upon its variations any inference as to the effect of the Notification of Births Act. The names of the local authorities are as follows, the four in which the Act is to become operative this year being marked with an asterisk:—
Burghs.—Edinburgh, Glasgow Govan, Stirling, Paisley, Greenock, Partick, Renfrew, Leith, Falkirk, Kilmarnock, Dundee, Govan, Kirkcaldy, Musselburgh, Irvine, Hamilton, Motherwell, Port Glasgow, Aberdeen, Pollokshaws, *Inverness, *Ayr.
County Districts.—Kirkcaldy District of Fife, Lower Ward District of Lanark, Upper District of Renfrew, *Middle Ward District of Lanark, *Dunfermline District of Fife.