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mortality of childhood. 41
Hopeless Births.
It has to be admitted that under present-day conditions a certain proportion of infants
are born without any reasonable prospect of attaining their first birthday. To such births
the designation which heads this paragraph has been given. It has a more limited application
than that of the term frustra-nes, suggested by Mons. A. Guillard.* "Hopeless births"
(frustra nati) should be limited to children who are born only to die within the first year of
life, whose lives there is no prospect of conserving by any preventive measures at present
known. The amelioration of ante-natal condition is the only method which offers any
prospect of checking this wastage.
There are two ways of arriving at estimates of these "hopeless births." The first is
by counting the children who are dead at the date of registration of their births (method "A"),
and the second by taking out the numbers of deaths at ages under one month—the earliest
date at which conservative intervention can usually become effective—but excluding alt
deaths at those ages from overlaying, and adding thereto the deaths at ages under one year
from" premature birth "and" congenital malformations or defects" (method "B.")
Inasmuch as "A" depends on local registration of birth, the correction should be applied
to the crude totals of births registered in the Borough. "B," on the other hand, being
independent of the registration of birth can be applied to the corrected totals of births.
Below is a statement showing the varying percentages of "hopeless" to all births of each sex
for each of the five years 1905-09 according to the two methods. The mean proportions for
the two sexes combined (persons) are—Method "A," 3.3 per cent.; method "B," 3.9 per cent.
By both methods the proportions show a tendency to increase.
Total Births
uncorrected.
Hopeless Births
(Method "A.")
Percentage of
total Births.
Total Births
corrected.
Hopeless Births
(Method " B.")
Percentage of
total Births.
m. f. m. f. m. f. m. f. m. f. m. f.
1905 1,628 1,556 53 54 3.2 2.8 1,687 1,618 62 59 3.6 3.6
1906 1,633 1,519 42 47 2.5 3.0 1,719 1,567 56 56 3.2 3.5
1907 1,586 1,488 79 45 4.9 3.0 1,665 1,541 88 48 5.2 3.1
1908 1,609 1,540 53 46 3.2 2.9 1,678 1,618 75 64 4.3 3.9
1909 1,481 1,414 58 45 3.9 3.1 1,558 1,473 73 50 4.6 3.4
Means 3.5 3.0 4.2 3.5
The causes of death of the "hopeless births" (Method "A") are given in Table 34.
One-third of the children died within twenty-four hours of their birth, and more than twothirds
(65) within the first week. Three of the deaths were due to an absolutely preventable
cause, viz., "overlaying," and three others to a possibly preventable, viz., diarrhoea. For
the remaining 97 children an early death appears to be the only issue which could have been
looked for.
In judging what would be the effect of eliminating the hopeless births from all calculations
of infantile mortality, the partially corrected rate (that is the rate obtained for the uncorrected
births and corrected deaths) has to be used with Method "A," and the fully corrected rate
(that from the corrected births and deaths) with "B." The reductions in the two rates for
each year since 1905, according to the method employed, are shown on next page. The mean
*The designation frustra-nes (born in vain) was first applied to sterile flowers by Linnoeus, and later suggested
by M. Achille Guillard to designate children who died without progeny (Bertillon Cours Elencntaire de Statisque,
p. 526). Inasmuch as a fair proportion of mankind pass through a lifetime of normal duration and leave no
progeny, it seems desirable that the designation should be limited as suggested here.