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Infant mortality may therefore be diminished when expectant
mothers more deliberately train themselves, both
in body and mind, for the very serious task they have
engaged in. The promotion of practical knowledge in
these matters is much to be desired.
The special reasons for increase of infant mortality by
diarrhoea in hot weather are palpable. The heat is
directly exhausting in itself, and some cases of diarrhoea,
in infants and the aged, arise from pure exhaustion.
Heat renders a better supply of air necessary; and it
gives intensity to putrid emanations. Further, it increases
the difficulty of preparing and preserving food. Hence,
infant mortality will be decreased by the supply of sweet
and airy dwellings.
Scarlatina, diphtheria, and putrid sore-throat conjointly
destroyed 15 parishioners. In the preceding quarters,
the number of parishioners destroyed by these diseases
was 20, 30, 34, and 25. The decrease is gratifying.
Scarlatina was very prevalent in Brook's Mews, Davies
Street, where a young married woman and two children
died of it.
The case of putrid sore-throat (a girl of 13), occurred
at No. 2, Hertford Street, May Fair, a house,
the proprietor of which successfully refused two years
ago to pay the expense to which the local authority had
been put in abating a dangerous nuisance. For some
time before the poor girl's illness, a putrid taint had
pervaded the house, and doubtless there are some remaining
sources of impurity which are not thoroughly
explored. The patient died a month after the attack.
One death from diphtheria occurred at No. 263,
Oxford Street, in a delicate boy of 6. He too died
exhausted after six weeks.