View report page

We have in the past been accustomed to regard the decline in the
infantile mortality rate as due to the greater care and supervision of
the mother and child, improved midwifery, educational measures in
connection with child nurture, the provision of nourishment in the form
of milk for the necessitous, and to a raised standard of life generally.
As these conditions still obtain (although it must be admitted that
no exact measurement of the last proposition is possible) it is necessary
to see to what causes we can allocate, however imperfectly, the slowing
up of the previously steady reduction in infant deaths. The following
matters may be considered in this connection:—
1. The reduced birth-rate results in a greater proportion of primiparous
births amongst which class of children the death-rate is
correspondingly high.
2. Illegitimate births represented 3-0 per cent, of the total births.
The death-rate per 1,000 births amongst these illegitimate children
was 161, as against 73 for legitimate children.
3. Influence of Season: The effect of adverse climatic conditions
as provocative of infant ailments tends to a raising of the death-rate.
Thus in the early months of the year, which it will be recalled were
very severe, the mortality was unduly high, there being 55 deaths in
the first quarter as against 86 in the remaining quarters of the year.
4. Incidence of Disease: Throughout the year respiratory diseases
generally were much in evidence, and it is worthy of note that 31
b2