Infant mortality: a social problem / by George Newman.

  • Newman, George, Sir, 1870-1948.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Infant mortality: a social problem / by George Newman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    I PRESENT POSITION AND INCIDENCE OF INFANT MORTALITY '^HE death of infants in relation to a community is infantile mortality rate. Infants are children under twelve months of age, and the infant mortality rate is the proportion which the deaths of such infants bears to every thousand births. An ordinary death rate is the proportion which the total deaths of a community bears to a thousand of the population in such a community. But it is clear that a more accurate death rate for infants is obtained if we compare the total number of infant deaths not to a thousand of the general population but to a thousand births in the same year. In some places this is a low rate such as 80 per 1,000 births, which means, of course, that for every thousand children born in a year 80 die before they are twelve months old. In other places it is found that this infant mortality rate is high, say 200 or 250 per 1,000. A low rate, other things being equal, indicates a healthy community, a high rate the reverse. As communal life becomes more healthy and civilised it death rate known as the