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33
at the National Conference on Maternity and Child Welfare in
1035, concerned children between the ages of two and five yeaTS
of age. Most of the propaganda of some associations has recently
been concentrated on the needs of the toddler. Throughout the
country it appears that in spite of the comparative neglect of the
pre-school child, the mortality trend at that age period has been
favourable. This has only been partly true of Acton. There has,
of course, been a tremendous improvement since the commencement
of this century, but not to the same extent as that which
has occurred in the case of mortality of infants under one year of
age. The improvement in the infantile mortality began earlier
than that of the mortality of the child of school age. In Acton,
the infant mortality began to fall about 1008, and with slight
intermissions, has been falling steadily up to the present time. The
infantile mortality did not fall under 100 per 1,000 births until
1912, but it was falling since 1908 until 1911, when it again rose to
140 per 1,000 births. 1911 was a very hot year and the district
suffered greatly from infantile diarrhoea during the hot summer
months of that year. In 1912 the infantile mortality fell to 73
per 1,000 births, and with the exception of 1915, when it was exactly
100 per 1,000 births, the infantile mortality has always been
below 100 per 1,000 births since 1911. The fall has been almost
a continuous one, and in 1933 the infant mortality was 45 ; in 1934,
41 per 1,000 births. In 1935, there has been a sharp rise in the
infantile mortality and a drop in the number of deaths between
the ages of 1 and 5 years.
The death-rate of children between the ages of 1 and 5
years has shown a curve which is rather curious and not entirelyexplicable.
In Acton there was a sharp rise in the toddlers mor
tality in the year 1904 which continued fairly high until the end of
the Great War. There were slight intermissions in 1910 and 1915,
but broadly speaking the toddler mortality did not fall perceptilby
and steadily until the year 1919. In that year there was a
sharp drop, and although there had been a slight improvement,
it has not been a continuous and steady one. Until last year we
had the lowest number of deaths in 1923, when there were 20 deaths
between the ages of 1 and 5 years; in 1935 there were only 12 deaths
at this age period. If we separate the age periods into 1 to 2 years
and 2 to a years respectively, 1935 was the record year only in the
earlier period with 2 deaths, the previous lowest at that age period
being 1933 with 7 deaths.
In the age period 2 to 5 years, there were 10 deaths last
year compared with 7 in 1925 and 9 in 1931. If the table at the
and of the report be examined, it will be noticed that in the