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39
Ages at death.—Out of 342 deaths, 73 children died in
the first week of life, a number more than that of the deaths in
any two other months after the first.
Of these deaths 60, that is four-fifths of the whole number,
were due to premature birth. Now for these cases, while it
is easy to point out a remedy, it is difficult to know how to
apply it. Towards the end of the year, however, negotiations
are in progress by which the lady Health Visitor will be allowed
to interview in the hospital poor people who apply at St. Bartholomew's
for midwifery tickets. Those who have in previous
confinements had premature births will be visited, advised, and
kept under supervision with a view to preventing a like occurrence
again.
The number of children who died in the first month was 121—
more than the number of those who died in any four succeeding
months. It follows that the first month of life is the most critical
for babies—if they can be helped successfully over the first four
weeks they have a reasonable prospect of ultimate survival.
Measles caused 14 deaths in infants 6 to 12 months old. It
is almost impossible to get the average housewife, and especially
the mothers in poor localities, to treat measles as a serious
disease. As long as the rash lasts the babies are left unwashed
for fear of “driving the rash in”; as soon as the rash has
disappeared the mothers consider all danger at an end, and take
the infants out in inclement weather to develop pneumonia, and
later to die.
In 9 of the 14 cases measles was followed by pneumonia,
causing death; these deaths should almost certainly have been
prevented by the exercise of a little common sense. Eight of
the deaths belong to Clerkenwell, 6 to St. Luke's. Two of
the deaths occurred in the workhouse infirmary, 2 in various
“model buildings.”
Hooping Cough.—There were 12 deaths due to this disease,
as compared with 21 in the previous year. Many of these deaths
are doubtless directly attributable to the exposure attendant upon
ignorance and carelessness. In 9 cases the actual cause of death
was pneumonia, which is not an uncommon complication of the