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164 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
collected body of facts, a good deal of information, very much
indeed to the point, may be found in the Reports of the
Medical Officer to tho Privy Council. It is needless for me to
any how replete all these Iteports are with sanitary researches
of tho highest importance ; but the document most to our
purpose is EL report, kindly pointed out to me by Dr. Mouat,
mndo by tbe late Dr. Henry J. Hunter on the excessive
mortality of infants in some rural districts of England.*
Ae, indeed, this report treats of sgricuhral districts, it
might seem to have little bearing on our subject. But
tho parts of tho country examined by Dr. Hunter afforded
an. uxperimcnt of R most significant and conclusive character.
A serious increaso of infuut mortality had been
o1)scrvcd in certain mnrshy agricultural districts, and t,he only
apparent nntecodent was the bringing of the land under
cultivation. As this change, however, might be expected t,o
banish tho mnlaria of the fens, it seemed, at first sight, unaccountallc!
that the illftrnts died off the more rapidly as the
climnto bccamo more healthy. A little inquiry, however,
showed that an inffuencs far more fatal than malaria had come
into oporntion. The mothers had gained employment in the
field-gangs, and had left their infants to the care of the old
women. That this was really the cause was established by
the concurrent evidence of all witnesses examined by the
reporter. Tho peculiar importance of this result is, that we
here hnve tho infiuence of rnnrriecl women’s employment freed
from the circurnstanccs of town life.
Tho escessive mortality of Salford or Nottingham, we see,
is not due ulono to the bad sanitary condition of the courts
and streets, for liko infant mortalit’y makes its appearance in
the most rural parts. We have, in fact, a true and complete
imluction, yoiuiing to the employment of zronwn atony from
their lmues CLI the eficient cause of their children’s decadence.
Dr. Huntcx.’s Report is crammed with other information,
more instructive t,han pkasfbnt. It is unfortunate that such
pp.
Sixth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Co~cil, 1863,
(Parl. Paper, 1864, No. [S,4161 VOL xxviii).