View report page

INFANT MORTALITY
IN this chart the continuous line shows the figures of infant
mortality in Hornsey for each year from 1888 and the
Interrupted line indicates the rate of infant mortality during the
third quarter of each year (the months of July, August and
September.)
It is common knowledge amongst people interested in health
satistics and social problems that infant mortality in all parts of
the country has been greatly reduced during the present century.
This reduction in Hornsey in shown in the continuous black line.
which reaches its lowest figure of 32.58 in 1938.
it is not so commonly known that there has been during the
same period a remarkable reversal in the seasonal incidence of
deaths of infants under one year of age. This is brought out very
clearly by the interrupted line. In the last six years of last century
the infant mortality rates of 166, 158, 151 203, 195 and 110
during the months of July, August and September were consistently
higher that the rates of 128, 102, 117, 106, and 102 for the
whole year.
The same phenomenon is observed at a lower level in the years
1904, 1911, 1915 and 1923.
In striking contrast with this relationship, the figures from 1926
onwards-that is, for the last thirteen year-shows that, with one
exception (the year 19134), the infant mortality in the third quarter
has been consistently lower than the infant mortality for the
whole year.
What is the cause of this change in the seasonal relationship
of infant deaths? This question cannot be answered confidently
by any simple explanation. A number of factors have of all
probability contributed to the result. The chief cause of high
infant mortality in the warm months of the year was undoubtedly
epidemic enteritis- the diarrhoea and vomiting of infancy-an
extremely infectious disease which affected large numbers of
children in summer.
In hot, dry summers the infant mortality from this cause was
appalling. the factors which have contributed to the virtual
abolition of this infection are:-
(1) The great strides made in the supply of pure, clean safe
milk. The supply of pasteurised milk in sealed bottles is
one of the biggest advances ever made in infant hygiene.