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up" as required through the day, this excellent
medium for the multiplication of organisms before
long helps their numbers to increase a thousandfold.
It is not much wonder under circumstances like
these that infants die of diarrhoea, and that ill-health
is produced in other members of the family. A wellpaved
yard, capable of being frequently washed down
and a properly kept dust-bin are the best preventives
of these evils. By giving attention to these points, the
conditions as to dust, which proved so beneficial in
1903, could with little trouble be produced artificially
right through the driest season, and would, there is
little doubt, help very materially in the reduction of
of the death-rate.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
There were 259 deaths during the year of
children under one year of age. The number of births
during the year (exclusive of those occurring in the
Edmonton Union, whose parents do not belong to this
District) was 1,846. The infantile mortality therefore
is 140.3 per 1,000 births, In order to make this comparable
with the figures for preceding years, in which
it has been the custom to deduct from the number of
infant deaths those due to premature birth, we must
allow for 37 such deaths which occurred during the
past year. This gives a total of 222 deaths under one
year, or an infantile mortality rate of I20'2, the lowest
figure recorded for the last 10 years.
The infantile mortality figure is a fairly accurate
indication of a district's health, and we have here an