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7
year 1873, 210 occurred amongst infants who had not reached
the age of one year; and of infants and children together,
320 had not arrived at the fifth year of their age. More than
26 per cent. of the mortality registered, occurred amongst
infants under one year of age, whilst of infants and children
together, 40 per cent. died before they had attained their fifth
year. This is a higher average than that for the whole of
the Metropolis, and is very high as compared with that at
other periods of life, and principally occurred amongst the
children of the poor. The mortality amongst infants in the
whole of the Metropolis amounts to 25 per cent.
The diseases, however, culminating in the reports of
the Registrar of Deaths indicate only a portion of the ailments
more or less prevalent amongst infants. Scrofula, atrophy,
debility, diarrhoea, &c., attributable to ill-assorted marriages,
the want of breast milk, intemperance of parents, careless
nursing, absence of fresh air, and the grossly ignorant manner
in which children are fed; and to some of these predisposing
causes must frequently be attributed their too earlv death.

Of the diseases which occasioned the above-mentioned
mortality, and which are enumerated in Table III.,
110 deaths were attributed to zymotic diseases.
136 ,, „ constitutional diseases.
389 „ „ local diseases.
144 ,, ,, developmental diseases.
12 ,, ,, violent deaths.