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15
are only partially, it at all, breast-fed, and the troubles of
bottle-feeding are accentuated during every spell of hot
weather by the difficulty of keeping milk and other food in a
perfect sound condition.
Even under the most favourable surroundings a considerable
number of infantile deaths must be looked upon as inevitable,
such for example as the majority of those from premature
birth, always a large factor in the total mortality, and
if we fairly regard the circumstances of the parents in individual
cases we shall find that many of the adverse causes at
work are as yet rather theoretically than practically preventable.
In order to indicate the effect of "social conditions,"
by which term I intend to apply income, house accommodation,
education, and other dependent conditions, I have grouped
the deaths under one year of age, and also the births, according
to the rateable value of the houses occupied.

The differences between the above infantile mortality
rates is very noticeable, and if we exclude from Class 1 all
houses occupied by more than one family and compare the
infantile mortality rate of the remaining group of houses with
that of the rate in houses valued at under £30, and in which
two or more families are living, the contrast is even greater,
i.e., 71 deaths per 1,000 births in the former, and 157 per
1,000 births in the latter.