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14
In Table IV., the third of the set, the deaths occurring in the age groups,
0-3 months, 3-6 months, and 6-12 months are classified under the various causes
set forth in Table III. Table V. of the Local Government Board series, which
will be found at page 93, also contains information regarding this important
subject.
In commenting upon the tables in the report for 1909, it was pointed out
that the bulk of the deaths were of children under three months of age.
The state of affairs in 1910 is exactly similar, 137 (54 per cent.) of the 253
infants having died before the end of the first quarter. The percentage for
1909 was 59. The number of children who died before attaining the age of
one month—102, nearly half of the total—is much higher than in 1909, when
the figure was 96 out of 259.
Apart from infectious diseases which caused 21 deaths—measles 6, whooping
cough 15—the chief causes of mortality amongst infants in 1910 were immaturity
(prematurity, wasting and developmental diseases) which accounted for 76, and
affections of the respiratory organs (bronchitis 22, and pneumonia 8) which were
certified as responsible for 30 deaths. To these two causes alone, therefore,
106 deaths, nearly one half of the total, were traceable. The actual percentages
were immaturity 30 per cent., respiratory diseases 11.5 per cent. The proportion
due to infectious diseases was 9 8 per cent. Further comment will be made
regarding these affections under the heading Records of Diseases (p. 27).
In the majority of reports regarding infantile mortality the trio of causes to
which the bulk of infant deaths are shown to be traceable are immaturity,
respiratory affections and diarrhœa. In the report for 1909 this was the case—
diarrhoea being responsible for close on 14 per cent. of the total deaths. In
1910 only 9 deaths were classed as being due to diarrhoea, which made it one of
the less important instead of one of the outstanding causes of death. Other
causes contributing in about the same proportion as diarrhoea were convulsions 9,
suffocation 8, and meningitis—all forms—7. Of the 8 infants certified as having
been suffocated (overlaid), 6 were less than three months old, 4 of them less than
one week.
Prevention of Infantile Mortality.
As is now generally recognized, the great bulk of the deaths of infants under
one year of age occur from causes almost entirely preventable. Their prevention,
and this has been proved over and over again, is to a great extent in the hands
of the mothers who bear the children. Many of those who died because
prematurely born or because of the diseases classed as developmental, did so
because their mothers were in bad health or careless of themselves. Many of