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94
The mean annual death rate per 1,000 from diarrhoeal
diseases in Deptford for the past ten years was as follows:—
1903 0.64 1908 0.70
1904 0.98 1909 0.39
1905 0.73 1910 0.68
1906 1.26 1911 172
1907 0.18 1912 0.34
These figures must be taken with a certain amount of
reservation for the reasons stated before.
The chart illustrates the fact that dry, hot weather is
necessary for fatal diarrhoea to become prevalent. Why
meteorological conditions produce such serious results cannot
altogether be explained. It may be that a hot summer lowers
the resistance of infants and renders them more liable to the
disease. Again, it may be that hot weather increases the
number of domestic flies and consequently the risk of contamination
of milk and other infant foods. I am inclined to
the opinion that summer diarrhoea is due to organisms derived
from human or animal filth, and that the prevalence of the
complaint during hot summers is due, first to the amount of
dust prevalent during a dry summer, and secondly to the
opportunity afforded by high temperatures for the growth of
infecting organisms in milk and other infant foods. Hand-fed
infants are specially liable to fatal attacks for two reasons,
first because they run more risk of infective material being
introduced with their food, and secondly because hand-feeding,
unless conducted with the greatest circumspection, and with
the most careful adaption to the digestive capacity of the
individual child, is apt to induce intestinal catarrh or other
digestive disturbances, which render the bottle-fed babies
unduly susceptible to diarrhœal disease.