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From the above table it will be seen (a) that the mortality
is heaviest in the first three months of life; (b) that three groups
of diseases between them account for 298 (i.e., 63.2 per cent.) of
the total deaths of infants during 1913, viz., congenital and
developmental diseases, respiratory diseases and diarrhoea.
Looking more in detail into these figures it will be seen that
of the 472 infant deaths, 162 (i.e., 34.3 per cent.) were due to
congenital diseases.
The respiratory group was responsible for 98 (i.e., 20.7 per
cent.) of the total infant deaths.
The deaths from diarrhoea numbered 38 (i.e., 8 per cent. of
the total infant deaths). This, however, does not represent the
total death-rate from this cause, as there was a large number (53)
of deaths of infants under one year from enteritis, many of those
deaths being doubtless deaths which would be more correctly
included under the head of diarrhœal deaths.
There is thus to be recorded a marked increase in the infant
mortality-rates in the respiratory and diarrhœal groups of
diseases. In the first quarter of the year, influenza, bronchitis
and pneumonia were unusually prevalent; while during the third
quarter of the year there was a marked rise in the death-rate from
summer diarrhoea, the meteorological conditions which prevailed
probably favouring an increased incidence.