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A comparison of the causes of infantile mortality in 1908 with
those of the preceding year shows an increase during last year in
the deaths from diarrhoeal and lung diseases, convulsions, and
accidental suffocation in bed, and a decrease in those from wasting:
diseases and whooping cough.
While the Rate of Infantile Mortality is a low one among the
Metropolitan Boroughs, it is a rate which can be considerablyreduced
by suitable methods. About one-third of the total deaths
among infants occurred in the first month of life, and high authorities
are of opinion that quite three-fourths of the infants born in the
country are healthy at the time of birth. That so many succumb
during the first year of life must be attributed to lack of breastfeeding,
the lack of a sufficiently pure milk supply in cases where
artificial feeding has to be resorted to, bad air and insufficient warmth,
cleanliness and sleep; other contributory factors are embraced in
the housing conditions, conditions of work and the personal qualities
of the parents. It is now universally recognised that if the high
rate of infantile mortality is to be materially reduced many of the