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44
1907
Such a deathtoll as 14.8 per cent. among the infants of Lower Holloway
and of 13.2 per cent. among those of Tollington is not pleasant reading, and
no amount of reasoning will lessen its gravity, for it has been argued that in recent
years there has been a decreased mortality, and, therefore, no special efforts are
needed to combat it. Granted, for argument's sake, that it has declined, its
amount is so insignificant that it is not worthy of remark, for it is at most
a reduction of 2.8 per cent. since the years 183945, whereas the rate might
have fallen to at least 80 per 1,000 if there had been proper attention and
instruction given to mothers about themselves, their surroundings, and their
infants. Labour is an operation usually attended without risk to the infant,
but owing to the surroundings in which the child is born, it frequently happens
that its vitality is sapped at the earliest stage of its existence; its frail constitution
is blighted ; and its life, if the child be not killed, is made a burden by
disease, which would never have afflicted it if there had been a kindly sympathetic
voice to instruct and direct the mother in the duties of motherhood both
before and after its birth.

Is the average of these rates in any one district during the last six years
satisfactory? One cannot think so when the lowest average mortality during
six years is 103 per 1,000, while the highest is 152 per 1,000, and is an irrefutable
answer to those who say "all is well" to our boasted administration.
The district in which this high rate has existed is Lower Holloway, whose
population is at least 41,700, and is equal to that of a good sized town, and
whose general sanitary state is good. Again, the average infant mortality rate
during the last six years of Barnsbury cannot afford satisfaction, for there it