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Sir Shirley Murphy has pointed out that nearly one-third of the
death of children under one year of age occur during the first month
of life, and that the numbers of deaths in each successive month
decrease until the ninth month is reached, when there is a slight
increase, due in all probability to the change from natural to artificial
food. He has also' demonstrated in his last Report that the
mortality amongst children under one year of age increases with the
proportion of the population living under overcrowded conditions,
the term "overcrowding" applying to that proportion of the population
shown by the Census figures of 1901, to be living more than two
in a room, in tenements of less than five rooms.
Dr. Sykes, of St. Pancras, has shown that in St. Pancras infants
are dying aft a younger and younger age; and he gives it as his opinion
that this is apparently due to increased immaturity at birth, diminished
viability, and increased artificial feeding- Dr. Howarth, of Derby,
has shown that among 8,343 infant deaths the following facts came
out on enquiry: —The breast-fed furnished a rate of 8.6 per thousand;