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12
1916]
name; O help it for my sake." But he never would have said to us, "O save
the children because they will be necessary to fight our battles in the next
generation." Such a motive would be unworthy of so great, so noble a cause,
and is one of which so generous and so humanitarian—so Christian—a nation
as ours should be ashamed. Rather let it be that which caused the Founder
of our Religion to "touch" the infants who were brought to Him and whom
His disciples would have driven away.
Just now, when the prevention of infant mortality occupies so much public
attention, it would be as well to analyse at least briefly the ages at which
infants die in the first year of life. This has been done in the Table which
immediately follows, wherein it is found that in the ten years 1907-1916, 1,710,
or slightly more than one-fifth of all the infants born, die during the first week
of life. Now most of these die from pre-natal causes, very many of which are
entirely preventable, and it is, therefore, for this reason that efforts are made,
and will be more strenuously made to get into touch with the mothers,
especially young mothers, in the early periods of their pregnancies. In the
same period 470 died in the first to second week of life, 358 in the second to
third week, and 312 in the third to fourth week, making together 2,850, or just
one-third of the deaths of infants in the first four weeks of their existence,
which is an unpardonable waste of life, as it is due largely to, for the most part,
preventable ante-natal causes. During the next two months 1,603 deaths are
recorded, making in all 4,453, out of 8,444, deaths, or 52.7 per cent. of all the
deaths in the first year of infant life, which shows how necessary it is to reach
the mother before birth and the infants as soon as they are born, so that they
may receive the assistance of a sympathetic, an advising, and a healing hand.
During the second three months (3—6) the number of deaths falls to
1,561; in the third three months (6—9) it is 1,241, while in the fourth period
(9—12) it is 1,189.