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It is surprising how difficut it is to persuade people that
fresh air will not injure children. They block up every aperture
which might serve as an entry to fresh air and an exit to the
foul air, and think that by so doing they serve the best interests
of their children.
5.—Hereditary Diseases.—Diseases in the parents are often
accountable for weak children. In some instances these diseases
cause the children to be prematurely born, in other instances the
children are born at full term, but the iniquities of the parents
are visited upon the children. Under this heading might be
included alcoholism in the parents. The question of whether
acquired characteristics can be transmitted need not trouble us ;
but it must be admitted that habitual drunkenness in the
parents does tend to produce feeble children. Not only does
drunkenness affect the children by causing the inherited capital
with which the child starts life to be deficient, but it also acts
indirectly on the infant in this way, that often their surroundings
are unhealthy, and the mother neglects the child.
6.—Insurance.—It is often stated that infants that are
insured stand a far worse chance of living than children that are
not insured. I have been told that some of these are insured
before they are born. The fact of there being a slight monetary
advantage derived from its death, is asserted to render the
mother more careless of its health, and less anxious to rear it.
I am not in a position either to prove or to disprove the above
statement; but I have made inquiries from some of the best
authorities. Knowing that Mr. Wynne Baxter, the Coroner for
East London, at every inquest he holds on children particularly
asks whether the child is insured or not, I made inquiries of him.
He told me that 75 per cent. of the children that die, and are
the subject of investigation by him, are insured ; but at the same
time he does not think that the fact that they are insured has
any influence or bearing on the death. Mr. Baxter's experience
shows how prevalent the practice is amongst the poor of East
London, but his opinion as to its effect must also be held as the
highest and best in London.
From the figures which I have given under the various
headings, you may gather to what extent these factors enter into
the causation of a high infantile mortality. The above figures