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If we refer to the Returns of Infantile Mortality for the Borough
during the past few years we invariably find that the loss of life is far
the greatest in the first three months of life, and that the conditions
which are most responsible for death are, Premature Birth, Wasting
Diseases, Diarrhoea and Lung Diseases. For the next three months of
life Diarrhoea exacts the heaviest mortality, but Lung Diseases continue
to cause a considerable proportion of the deaths. Between the ages of
six and twelve months the high mortality is more especially maintained
by Measles, Whooping-cough, Diarrhœa and Lung Diseases.
Daring the year a special enquiry was made as to the sanitary
circumstances, etc., of those poorer homes in which an infant under
one year of age had died during the preceding year, with the view of
ascertaining, if possible, what conditions existed which were unfavourable
to any further children which may be born on those
premises. It was found that in over one third of the poorer homes
the mothers were engaged in some work which took them from their
homes during the greater part of the day, and, on enquiry, it was
ascertained that among fourteen deaths of infants from Zymotic