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45
[1909
taught something of the care of children in our public elementary schools, but
the system of teaching in them is such as to never make it possible to
drill into the heads of the children a knowledge which they will retain
for the 6 or 8 or 10 years which must elapse after leaving school to the
time of their marriage. Besides there is the danger of making these very
young children too precocious at 13 or 14 years of age. In any case an education
of this description like the other education that is imparted to scholars in
the public elementary schools would be of the veriest surface type and would
never be of any use to the future mothers of children, and, therefore, it
becomes necessary to teach mothers themselves something about the duties and
demands of maternity, and the right way to clothe and feed their infants, and
especially how to feed them in those terribly fatal hot summer months when
diarrhoeal diseases are so rife. It may be said that of late years the infant
mortality has been greatly checked, and that consequently no special effort is
needed. No doubt there has been a slight check, which can be best understood
by its past history in the Borough, and which may be studied in Table
I. in the Appendix. Here it may be noticed that from 1871 to 1900 the
infant mortality rate remained at a very high figure, averaging in the ten years
1871 to 1880, 147 per thousand births, from 1881 to 1890, 144, and from 1891
to 1900, 148. It was, therefore, during thirty years practically stationary,
varying very slightly according as the mortality in the third quarter of the year
was high or low. This influence may be seen in the following figures which
relate to the quinquennial periods since 1886 to the present time.
Annual Rate
per 1,000 births.
Third Quarter's Rate
per 1,000 births.
1886-90 147 195
1891-95 145 173
1896-00 150 208
1901-05 130 154
1906-09 112 108
(4 years.)
In every instance it is seen here that when there was a decrease in the
mortality rate in the third quarter, which is usually much higher than the
annual rate, although there are occasional exceptions, there was also a decrease
in the annual rate, and this was especially marked during the last three years,
when the mortality rates of the third quarters were respectively 79, 95 and
90 per 1,000 births, so that the annual rate was in every instance higher
than that of the usually unhealthy third quarter. The chief factor in this
unhealthiness is the mortality from the diarrhasal diseases, which are usually so
prevalent at that time of the year.