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homes were the conditions as regards cleanliness found to be
unsatisfactory. The great majority of the homes in which these
411 infants died were described as being clean or very
clean. It cannot, therefore, be said that want of cleanliness
in the homes had much bearing on the deaths of these infants.

It should be noted that, as a large proportion of these
infants died in the first few days of life, the question of feeding
is not to be considered a factor of much importance. The case
is different, however, as regards deaths from diarrhoea, which
are most frequent from the fourth to the ninth month. For
example, from this cause in Battersea, during 1907, 40 of the
58 deaths enquired into occurred between the fourth and the
twelfth month; 34 of the 40 took place between the fourth and
the ninth months.
The conclusions to be drawn from the enquiries into the
deaths of these 411 infants are :—That these deaths are mainly
due to three chief causes: (a) prematurity and developmental
diseases, (b) respiratory diseases, (c) diarrhoea ; that the health
of the mothers is a factor of the greatest importance ; that
mismanagement and improper methods of feeding are also
important factors; and that environment, or, in other words,
poverty, insufficient food, bad housing, &c., are largely responsible
as predisposing causes to a high infantile death-rate,
nearly 25 per cent. of the total death-rate of the Borough being
due to this cause.