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5
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The idea that disease is a visitation of Providence which
can be cured by medicine is deeply inured in the minds of all
but educated people, and to some extent accounts for our
high infantile mortality.
A baby, unless born with some such disease as syphilis,
will in all probability grow into a healthy man or woman if
brought up in a proper way.
If the proper way is not agreed upon for the whole of
childhood, for the period of babyhood everyone agrees that the
mother should nurse her child for nine months or so if
possible. If she does this and is able to live in a house in
decent repair, free from damp and open to sunlight and air,
the baby will thrive so long as the mother keeps herself in
decent condition, avoiding drink and worry. Many hand-fed
babies survive infancy, but the weaklings succumb, and those
who are less strong grow up with lessened vitality.
The infantile mortality England and Wales 1904 is
145.33 per 1,000 births, of these 70.9 die under 3 months,
30.12 under 6 months, and 44.31 between 6 months and 1
year.
39.66 died of causes connected with their birth, 31.87
died of diarrhoea, 13.65 of convulsions, and 6.13 of tuberculosis,
or 51.65 of diseases more or less directly arising from preventive
causes, such as wrong food and want of care. A very
small percentage of babies die of these diseases under the age
of 1 year amongst the well-to-do, and those few who succumb
are bottle-fed not breast-fed.
In 1904 the total deaths were 283,206 M.,266,578 F. and these
76,378 M., 61,014 F. were under 1 year age, or almost exactly 1 death
in 4 is of a baby under 1 year of age. The proportion varies
in different districts, in Surrey it is 1 in 5, in Sussex 1 in 6, in
Hunts 1 in 7, Durham nearly 1 in 3, Westmoreland 1 in 8.
The returns of our own county show that the Kingston
infantile mortality is unduly high. I have shown that the
chief causes of death are due to improper feeding, added to
which are the numbers who die of infectious disorders,
bronchitis and pneumonia. These diseases, like the others,
are rarely fatal in the present day amongst breast-fed children