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with these deaths, and, indeed, in connection with the deaths
generally of infants under one year of age, the importance
of maternal nursing cannot be too strongly insisted upon.
The want of maternal nursing is probably the greatest single
cause of infant deaths. Not only are intestinal disorders far
commoner amongst artificially fed children, but many other
diseases are indirectly due to the same cause.
The chief reasons for hand feeding are—
(a) Insufficiency, or poorness of the maternal milk.
(b) Need of the mother returning to work.
Both of these conditions are probably due to the same
cause, namely, the social circumstances of the parents. In
some cases, however, artificial feeding may be a necessity,
and under such conditions it is essential that the method
and amount of artificial feeding should be explained individually
to the parents concerned, just in the same way as
any other abnormal condition would receive the individual
attention and skilled treatment of a doctor.
(3) Measles., Whooping Cough, Bronchitis and Pneumonia.
It should be noted that, in respect of children, these
diseases are closely allied, as deaths in respect of Measles
are usually due to complications such as Bronchitis or
Broncho-Pneumonia, and the same may be said of deaths
due to Whooping Cough. It should be observed that these
four causes accounted for the deaths of 88 children under
one, and 75 between one and five, in 1909, of 57 under one
and 83 between one and five in 1910, of 91 under one and
145 between one and five in 1911, of 94 under one and 71
between one and five in 1912, and of 81 under one and 100
between one and five in 1913, or a total of 411 children
under one and 474 children between one and five years of
age during the five year period, 1909-13. Deaths from such
causes occur in cases where the resistance of the child is