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51
MORTALITY IN CHILDHOOD.
Except in a few instances, in which for special reasons earlier calls were made, the first visits
paid varied from the 11th day after birth onwards. No analysis has been made Of children found
to be fed at the breast, but the subjoined statement of the ages of the other children will serve to
indicate approximately the intervals which elapse between birth and the first visit.

Among the children visited 81 were known to have died before the end of the year. Sixtytwo
of those children were found to be breast fed when visited, 13 artificially, and 6 were on a
mixed (breast and bottle) diet. The 81 deaths were equivalent to a mortality of 36 per 1,000
children visited, that among the breast fed being 32, that among the artificially fed 76, and that
among those on a mixed diet 39. The causes of death are set out below:—
Diarrhœa Diseases 31
Respiratory Diseases 18
Atrophy and Debility 6
Congenital Defects 5
Whooping Cough 4
Influenza 2
Premature Birth 2
Overlaid in bed 2
Other Causes 11
Twenty-eight of the deaths occurred in institutions, including 20 in the Infirmary.
In addition to the visits above recorded, 4,259 visits were paid to 632 infants by the visitors
of the School for Mothers. A further "Consultation Centre" was opened by the School in
November of last year, so that there are now three centres at which infant consultations
are held. During the year 4,051 attendances were made by 671 infants. The special centre
for children over 1 and under school age was open on ten occasions, the consultations being
attended by 43 children with a total attendance of 109.
Fertility Records.—In the course of the visits on new-born infants, information was
obtained as to the frequency of pregnancy, miscarriages, &c., with regard to 2,183 families. The
2,183 mothers had been pregnant 7,763 times, and had given birth to 7,473 living children, of
whom 919 were dead at the time the last child (that of 1914) was born. The number of
pregnancies of individual women varied from 1 (612 women) to 19(2 women). In Table 35 the
data collected have been analysed* to show the frequency of miscarriages, still births, &c.,
associated with each successive order of pregnancy, the table being divided into two sections, of
which the upper half relates to families in which no children were reported as having died after
birth, and the lower to those families which admitted losing children who had been born alive.
The former group included 1,035 women who had been pregnant 3,692 times. On 169
occasions pregnancy had terminated in miscarriage (103) or still-birth (66), the remaining 3,523
pregnancies resulting in 3,554 living children, all of whom were reported to be alive at the time
of inquiry. The miscarriages formed 2.8 per cent. of the total number of pregnancies and the
still-births l.8 per cent. The women, up to the time of their deliveries in 1914, had families
averaging 343 living children per 100 women.
* The table deals only with the pregnancies subsequent to the first. Last year 615 children born to 612
primiparous women were included among the infants visited.