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on life, all being premature and one not having left the hospital
in which it had been born. The infections accounted for most
of the remaining deaths, viz., bronchitis and broncho-pneumonia,
gastro-enteritis, whooping cough and mastoiditis.
Eight babies (five male and three female) survived three
months but died before six months, and a further 22 (15 male and
seven female) survived six months but died before the twelfth
month. Congenital conditions and birth injuries are by this time
a cause of little importance, one child of 11 months dying after an
operation for spina bifida, and one child dying at four months of
inanition and dyspepsia. Infections of the respiratory tract, occurring
largely during, but not limited to, the winter months, figured
most prominently amongst the causes of death at these ages.
Bronchitis, bronchiolitis or broncho-pneumonia accounted for 11
deaths, in two appearing as a terminal condition in infants who
had all along had little vitality, and in one being the cause of
death in a mongol with congenital heart lesions. Three other
infants had infections of the upper respiratory passages, one leading
to mastoiditis and meningitis. Gastro-enteritis was the next most
common cause of death, accounting for seven, the illness of most
of these occurring during the winter and not the summer months.
The infants were all artificially fed but the onset of the illness was
not found to occur at the time of weaning. Of the other infections
whooping cough accounted for two deaths, tuberculous meningitis,
meningococcal meningitis, and erysipelas one each. One
child died from acute appendicitis, and one, a child of nine months,
died in October from convulsions due to rickets.
DEATHS OF OLDER CHILDREN.
Twenty-five children (16 male and nine female) died between
their first and fifth birthdays. Personally transmissible diseases
accounted for the majority of these deaths, there being three from
whooping cough, one each from diphtheria, scarlet fever, tuberculous
meningitis and streptococcal infection of the nasopharynx,
and seven from bronchitis or pneumonia. Gastro-enteritis as a
cause of death was less common than in the first year, accounting
for the loss of only one child in this group, a boy in his second year.
Accidents, one at home and two in the street, accounted for the
deaths of three children. Two deaths were the result of congenital
abnormalities, viz., spina bifida and congenital aneurism which
resulted in a cerebral hæmorrhage; and a boy of three died of
sarcoma of the kidney.
INFANT MORBIDITY.
Ophthalmia Neonatorum.
Number of cases notified : 9.
Number treated at home : 9. In hospital: nil.
Vision unimpaired : 9. Impaired : nil.
Total blindness : nil. Deaths : nil.