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the poorer classes Bt their dwellings, Srripturareaders, relieving officers
3nd other persons who hwe paid attention to the subject, nahesitatingly
expressed an opinion that the system under which the mothers of young
children are employed at factories and. workshops,away from home, is a
frnitful cause of infantile sickncss and mortality.”
Such, then, is the progress of civilisation produced by the
advancing powers of science and machinery ; two-thirds to
threc-fourths, or even as much as five-sixths, of tho infants
dying of neglect,. On this point all thc Officinl Reports concur
so unanimously that they may well be described as “damnablo
iteration.” *
It seems necessary, indeed, t,o mention that, according
to tho last issued Annual Rcport of tllo Registrar General
for England (Forty-second Report, containing the abstracts
€or ISiS), them has been decrease of infnnt mortnlity
in recent yenrs, cqm+dly during the years 18iG-79 wlml
the rate per 1000 males, which had been 7:3 or 7.L, fell to
nn arerago of 67.0. This low rate, however, may bo partly
duo to tho unusual healthiness of the year 1870, when t,lle
rate rns no more than 64. It is worthy of notice, too, that
mortality was nearly as low in thc years 1841-45, namely,
68.8, and then it rose rapidly to 77.4. Tllerc io some ground
for suspecting that want of active emplogtncnt in tho mills
may actually lead to saving of life in tho aggregate. In any
case, while the mortality of infants under one year of ago
continues to be as much as 50 or GO per cent,. higher in some
toms than in others, we cannot possibly deny that there exists
an immense amount of preventiLIe evil.
Let us consider now the results which have %owed from
the legislation promoted by the Committee on the Protection
of Infant Life. With tho kind assistance of Mr. Edward
Herford?, who has so long and so ably filled the 0fiic.e of Her
* Mr. Newmarchsaid at the British Association in 1861 {Report,
p. 202) : “The rate of infant mortality was almost thc best teat of
civilisation.”
f Important evidence on the subject of Infant Xortalitp was given
bp Mr. Herford before the Committee. See the Questions, 1907 to
2155. See ale0 the Report, p. iii