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ME TIIODS UF SOCIAL REFOR‘U.
demands special inquiry, which, of course, has never been
made.* In by fa? the largest number of cases, however, we
may bo glad to conclude that it is not real murder which wo
den1 with, but a mixture of thonghtlessness and carelessness,
varying in criminality from manslaughter up to mere misadventure
and ignorance of an entirely innocent character.
Rnt in any case the facta are of the most serious nature, and
must form suitable matter for reflection in tho approaching
Christmas season, round warm firesides and well-covered
tables.
To form Borne preliminary idea of the amount of infant
mortality with which we have to deal, we may turn to any of
the recent annual reports of the Registrar-General, and we
find a tnblo giving the deaths of children under five years of
ago in the principal great towns. Thus, in ths Forty-first
Report, p. xxxvi., we find that the sst.imated numbers of
cllildren under five years of age in nineteen large towns add up
toa little more than a million (1,023,896), while the number of
deaths of such children was 85,250. The rat.e of mortality,
howevet., varies extremely, being as comparatively low as
59.3 in 1000. in Portsmouth, rising to 65.8 in Brighton,
60.3 in 13risto1, $3.2 in Nowcnstle, 74.8 in Wolverhampton,
78-0 in London, 829 in Leicester and Nottingham, and so
on, until we roach gradually the higher amounts of 93.8 in
Salford, 95.2 in Birminghatn, 05.9 in Sheffield. T’he place of
dishonour is occl~picd by Liverpool, with an infant mortality
rising to a climax of 103.6 per 1000. In that great seaport
the infants (under five yssrs of age) are decimated annually !
Now, if we assume that, with proper sanitary regulations, the
infant mortality in towns ought not to exceed that of Norwich,
which is on the average about $0 per 1000, we readily calculate
that the excess of infant deaths in the other great towns in
question amounts to 15,500 annually. But the question clearly
depends upon the average of sanitation which we conceive possible.
Portsmouth, which me should not at first expect to find
On this subject 8- tho paper on “The Destmction ot Tnfants,” by
Mr. F. W. Lowndes, M.R.C.S. : Social Ecicnce Axsociatiob, 1876, Report,
p. 586.