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Premature Birth.
"Prematurity" Group.
In a number of these cases the mother was suffering from some illness or accident, and some of the
" Prematurity " cases are probably due to lack of care on the part of the mother in the later months of her pregnancy,
but the general opinion is that many such cases are the result of attempts to bring about a miscarriage
at an earlier date. Premature births occur almost entirely in small families.
A comparison of the figures for the various diseases under the heading "Maternal Employment, Ante-Natal"
(Table I) shows that employment late in pregnancy is likely to be a cause of premature birth, but it should be
noted that the proportion of illegitimate children is high, 12 out of 37 cases. Of the 11 "C" entries under
" Ante-natal Employment " eight are illegitimate infants, so that in these cases there is a combination of two
adverse factors. Further light on these cases is thrown by Table VIII.

It will be seen that the illegitimate cases show figures for their environment somewhat similar to those for
the "Marasmus" group of cases. The legitimate cases, on the other hand, resemble in environmental data the
"Bronchitis" group—the deaths do not seem to be determined in any way by conditions of housing, income, etc.
That environmental conditions are to a great extent satisfactory in these cases is shown in Table VII. ("Prematurity"
figures have been corrected for the lack of reliable data under "Post-natal Employment" and
"Feeding" by the addition of 20 per cent.). Table IV also shows that large numbers of these families are without
bad home conditions.
As has been already noted, the number of cases appearing in Table IV usually corresponds to the number in
Table V. In "Prematurity" cases the number considerably exceeds those shown in Table V. That is to say,
good home conditions are more frequently found than would be expected from a consideration of the family
income. This would seem to indicate that the type of parent in these cases was somewhat above the average.
The Committee suggest that two types of case are included in the " Prematurity " group. One, a small
group, is similar in many ways to the " Marasmus " group, and the findings of the Committee on that group
might apply here also. In the other, a large group, the premature births are not due to environment, as this is
satisfactory, but to illness, accident, or lack of care in the later months of pregnancy, to previous attempts to
terminate the pregnancy, or occasionally to the fact that the infant is genetically unsound.
Convulsions.
Congenital Malformations.
Complications of Birth.
Other Conditions.
The Committee do not propose to offer any observations on these cases.
Neo-Natal Deaths.
The gross neo-natal deaths are shown in Line 1 of Table IX, the total infant mortality in Line 2, and the
difference between these two sets of figures, i.e.—the data of infants dying between one month old and twelve
months old in Line 3. In Line 4 the data of neo-natal deaths are shown multiplied by two for ease of comparison
with Line 3.

This comparison brings out the interesting fact that the environmental conditions, under the headings of
"Housing," "Income," and "Size of Family" in the case of infants failing to survive the first month of life
are better than those in the case of infants dying in the next eleven months.