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186
Deaths Under One Month.
An anlysis of Table XC1X. shows that 14.3% of the infant
deaths occurred before the baby was 24 hours old ; 27.5% during the
first week of life ; and 45% before the end of the first month. In
1930 the corresponding figures were 20%, 41%, and 48%. These
figures relate to infant deaths due to causes probably operating
before birth and do not vary greatly as between different localities
in England. The chief individual cause was premature birth which
was the assigned cause in 44% of deaths under 1 month of life. In
the same group can be placed the second great cause, debility which
was the factor in 17%. Injury at birth is rather different inasmuch
as it is, by skilled ante-natal and natal attention, avoidable;
injury caused 5.7% of the deaths. Deaths under one month due to
congenital deformities constituted 11.4% of the whole during this
age period. It is interesting to see that conditions probably brought
on by faulty feeding played no part in this mortality. This group
of deaths contributed 25.9 per 1,000 births towards the infantile
mortality rate.
Deaths Under Three Months.
One hundred and twenty-five babies born died during the first
three months of life, a percentage of the total infant deaths of 64%,
and an infant mortality rate of 35 per 1,000 births. As the total infantile
mortality rate was 58, it is seen that three-fifths of that
rate was due to deaths in infants under 3 months of age. A perusal
of the causes of death between the end of the period dealt with in
the preceding section, and the third month shows an alteration in
the chief causes of death; these were Debility (21.6%) and
Pneumonia (24.3%). The effects of improper feeding, and exposure
to infection, are commencing to make themselves felt, and
from this age period onward to the end of the first year of life
Pneumonia is the outstanding cause. The Pneumonia deaths
occurred in the following months: January 6, February 6, March 4,
April 1, May 2, June 1, August 1, October 1, November 3, December
6.
Deaths between the 4th month and the end of the first year of
life were.caused chiefly by Diarrhoea (9.9%) ; Pneumonia (29-6%'
and Debility (14.1%).
Taking the figures in the table as a whole, the outstanding
features are.—
(1) The predominance of premature birth, and conditions
classified as debility and marasmus. Between them they accounted