INFANT MORTALITY.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10634, 19 April 1900, Page 4

INFANT MORTALITY.

Dr. GVluskett, of Sydney, has just inscribed

"to his little compatriote" the fifth edition of ids recognised work on "The Feeding and Management of Australian Children."

"Brimming over," as the Americans have recently said to be, "with, absolute kindness towards children," Dr. (Muekett cannot bring himself to believe that in this respect (we are excelled by our American cousins. If, then, the terrible facts of infant mortality in the Australasian colonies

[ail to exalte indignation, and stern, resolve

I for reform, it must, 'he believes, be owing, not to apathy, but to the ignorance, of the public. For this ignorance there will beno longer excuse after the publication of Dr. Muskett's book, which we can cordially recommend to our readers. The author quotes statistics accessible to all wlheii lie states that in the fifteen years from 1884 to 1898, inclusive, there have bfcen 203,327 deaths of children under two.years of age in the four largest Australian colonies. Of this number he considers that "nearly 100,000 deaths could have been prevented." When set down in the form of daily loss of life these figures seem jet more appalling. "The daily loss of life of infants (under the age of two years iw the four coloniee, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia, is 37. Every twenty-four hours thirty-seven infants, not two years old, die in these colonies. Of this number about-one-half could be prevented."

Mainly owing to more satisfactory climatic conditions, New Zealand compares favourably in this matter of infant mortality with any of the continental colonies. v Roughly speaking, out of every hundred children bom in New nine die before they are one year old. It is cutely the , duty of the country, not only from the humanitarian but from the economic point of view, to enquire with Dr.Muskett how far this terrible waste of life is preventible. We have in New Zealand no "snake-bite" and virtually no sunstroke, to swell the total of our infant deaths. And yet our percentage, about 9 per cent., is only from 1 to 2 per cent, lower than that of the least favourable of the Australian colonies. Can nothing be , done to remedy this state of things?

I Dr. Mufikett considers that infant mortality in the colonies might be reduced to half its present proportions if the following measures were taken: —(1) A sheet of printed instructions as to feeding and simple remedies, to be issued by the colonial Governments; (2) the sending of invalid infants into the country (as is done by the Sydney n Fresh Air League");. (3) the sale of "m----perior quality" milk on purpose for infant feeding; (4]f the wider diffusion through the press of infant mortality statistics; (5) the establishment of foundling hospitals in every colonial capital. As to the wisdom of some of these . suggested remedies, notably the last, opinions may well differ; but as to the general fact of excessive infant mortality in the Australian colonies, and also, if in a somewhat less degree, in New Zealand, theii can be no doubt whatever. We trust that Dr. Muskett's book will have the effect of calling public attention to a grave blot on our

civilisation.