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7. Soil.—This is an important factor among the
causes of infantile mortality which, fortunately, we are
able to cope with to some extent by efficient paving and
drainage.
8. Temperature.—The higher temperature of the air
in the summer months has long been observed to be
associated with high Diarrhoeal mortality, and the reverse
with low air temperature. The maximum mortality by no
means coincides with the highest readings of the air
thermometer. The temperature of the soil being a less
sensitive indicator, and more steady in its record, is on the
whole a better guide.
The maximum Diarrhoeal mortality is generally
attained in the week in which the temperature recorded by
the 4-ft. earth thermometer attained its mean weekly
maximum. It is a remarkable fact that for the first half
of 1911 the rate of infantile mortality for the borough was
only 93, and even more striking than that, in the East
Ward for the same period the rate was only 86 per 1000
births.
9. Rainfall.—Diarrhoeal diseases are greater in dry
seasons and less in wet. Under the former conditions the
micro-organism is capable of getting abroad from its
primary home, the earth, and having become air-borne,
fastens on food or other organic matter and uses it as a
nidus and pabulum in undergoing various changes in its
life history. From food and other organic matter it can
manufacture a virulent chemical poison which is the
material cause of diarrhoea.
10. Social position is a great factor in increasing
infantile mortality, as is shown by the statistics.