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MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
Infantile Mortality.
51 deaths occurred in infants under 1 year, corresponding
to an infantile mortality of 60 per 1,000 Birtlis.
The infantile mortality is 19 per 1,000 births higher than that
of 1934, and 14 per 1,000 higher than that of 1933.
The increase is almost entirely confined to two causes—prematurity
and diarrhoea. There were 11 deaths from. diarrhoea
and 13 from prematurity. The increase, from diarrhoea is not
easily explainable, as the third quarter of 1935 was not characterised
by the weather usually associated with digestive disturbances.
There is always a slight increase in the incidence of diarrhoea during
a hot and dry summer, in spite of the improvements which have been
effected in infant feeding, but the summer of 1935 was neither
hot nor dry.
There was an increase also in the number of deaths from
premature birth, together with congenital conditions such as spina
bifida, and congenital heart disease.
5 deaths occurred as the result of injury at birth, compared
with none in 1934. 29 of the deaths occurred under the age of
4 weeks.
Toddlers.
The present trend of interest among welfare workers is
in the direction of improvement of the services for pre-school
children, and it is significant that almost all the subjects discussed