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34
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The rate of infantile mortality which last year was
considerably the lowest on record shows a still further reduction,
namely, from 123 per 1,000 in 1903 to 115 per 1,000 in 1904.
There were altogether 509 deaths of infants under one year
of age, and of these no fewer than 135 were contributed by
diarrhoea and enteritis, while atrophy, marasmus, starvation or
want of breast milk accounted for 73. All of these are preventable
diseases, so that 2/5ths at least of the deaths of infants under one
year should not have occurred, and this in a year of exceptionally
low mortality. There were 78 premature births and 87 deaths
from diseases of the respiratory system.
The greater proportion of deaths occurred during the 3rd
quarter of the year when zymotic diarrhoea was prevalent.
With a view to removing some of the main causes of infantile
deaths, the lady health visitors during the year systematically
visited at houses in which, according to the registration returns,
births had recently occurred.
Over 1,000 houses were thus visited and details as to the
methods of infant rearing were recorded in respect of some 872
births. At all houses where visits were paid, advice was tendered
where faulty methods were found and leaflets of instruction left
with the mothers or foster-mothers. A point was made of visiting
also at all houses where deaths of infants ascribed to zymotic
diarrhoea occurred. Altogether there were 651 birth enquiries
where at the end of the year the infants were alive, and 221
where deaths had occurred within the year.