Infant mortality / [signed: J. Theodore Dodd].

  • Dodd, J. Theodore (John Theodore), 1848-1934.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Infant mortality / [signed: J. Theodore Dodd]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    j/odd.-, J oV\y\ ictoie. INFANTILE MORTALITY. Dear Mr. Vice-Chancellor, Public attention has been frequently called of late to the terribly high infantile mortality in many of our large towns and Urban Districts. Last year the President of the British Medical Association at Swansea, after speaking of the. progress in surgery medicine and public health during the last thirty-six years, said :— The annual death-rate of all ages in England and Wales has fallen from 22 to 16 per iooo—a gain of 26 per cent. ; but the death-rate of infants under one year of age has risen nearly 2 per cent., while the birth-rate has diminished. Nearly half the children born were dead within five years. He added that :— Increased infant mortality and diminished birth-rate were two ugly facts not to the credit of our country or of modern civilization. Increased mortality among infants was due to diarrhoea and enteritis, and the increase due to these causes was seven times greater in towns than in the country. He also slated that much of the mortality is due to the ignorance and carelessness of mothers. It is abundantly proved that much of the evil arises from improper food and methods of feeding the infants, and that, to a very large extent, it is preventible, and ought to be prevented. The Reports of the Medical Officers of Health of many towns contain similar complaints. For example I may cite that of the Medical Officer of Paddington :—t Napoleon said that wars were decided by big battalions. In the same way the race for supremacy, be it in commerce, territorial expansion, or other form of national progress, depends upon the steady increase in population. If the nation is to main- tain its position in international affairs, something must be done to counteract the decreasing rate of growth. There can be no doubt that a ' crusade,' to use a term rather in vogue just now, against the present heavy infantile mortality is the only method which promises to produce good results. This condition of affairs, if allowed to go on, spells ruin to the nation. In connection with this high infant mortality we have not even the consolation that there is a survival of the fittest. The Medical Officer of Health for Sheffield saysj. :— It is quite wrong to say that the infants who die are in the majority of cases puny and unhealthy, and special stress must be laid on the necessity of making every effort to save their young lives. This is corroborated by many other authorities. * Not only has the birth-rate decreased, but it is steadily decreasing, and according to high authority it is decreasing more rapidly in England than in any othe*-E5fope^n':^ nation. See Note A, page 12. . — /^ t Report for 1902, page 32. ^.N.C1 « ( JAN 1962 } Report for IQ02, page 18. ,'_- —; ---