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7
Age at Death.—Infant Mortality.
That which must attract most attention in the Table, is the very great
preponderance of infant mortality ; of the total deaths upwards of 23 per
cent, took place under the age of 5 years, while upwards of 14½ per
cent, occured under 1 year of age. Upwards of 30 per cent, died under
20 years; 11 reached the advanced age of 80 and upwards, one of
whom attained to beyond the very rare age of 103 years.
A certain excess of infant mortality over that of adult age is a natural
one, and due to the greater susceptibility of the delicate organization of
infants to external influences; but the greater proportion of this excess
is most undoubtedly due to causes capable of control, and arising from
the various sanitary defects which are found by experience to intensify
and favour the propagation of those diseases to which the mortality of
infants is mainly attributable. These are diseases of the epidemic and
contagious class ; of the tubercular class, as scrofula, atrophy, phthisis,
hydrocephalus, &c. ; and diseases of the organs of respiration. Of the
67 deaths which occurred under the age of 5 years, 54 were due to
diseases of the above classes; of the total deaths from diseases of the
respiratory organs upwards of one-fourth occurred to infants under the
age of 1 year.
In proof of the above statement, if we would find those conditions
known from all experience to be most prejudicial to the tender frames of
infants, we look to the houses of those where overcrowding and bad
ventilation from within, and bad drainage, collections of filth and other
numerous sources of aerial impurity from without, prevail to still further
impair their vital energies by the pollution of their blood already impoverished
by bad or improper food, and too frequently by the absence of
that maternal care and attention then most needed—to the houses of the
poor—and it is just there that we find the greatest excess of infant
mortality. Of the 67 deaths which occurred to infants under 5 years
of age, 58 took place amongst the labouring classes; 7 amongst the
trading class; 2 amongst the professional and merchant class; and none
amongst the nobility and gentry; so that the infant children of the
labouring classes suffered nearly 6½| times as much mortality as those
of the other classes collectively. Further reference to Table II. shows
that the labouring classes suffered 4½ times as much mortality as the
other classes together. Allowing, for the sake of a safe argument, that
the labouring classes are 4½ times as numerous, as would be the case if
we assumed that all classes suffered the same relative amount of
mortality, even then the excess of infant mortality amongst the poor
would be 55 per cent, greater than that of the other classes.
Epidemic Diseases—Prevalence and Fatality of.
The deaths resulting from this class of diseases were due to typhus,
diarrhoea, hooping-cough and scarlet-fever; no death having resulted
from small-pox or measles, although the latter disease prevailed to some
extent during the months of July, August and September. Typhus