HOW THE CHILDREN DIE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 129, 2 June 1908, Page 6

HOW THE CHILDREN DIE.

The deplorable loss of children's lives in the towns of Great Britain has been emphasised by the National Conference on Infant Mortality, which sat at Caxton Hall recently. Mr John Burns told the Conference that in the main essentials Britain led the way, and was far ahead of other comparable countries, where industries flourished. mothers laboured, and babies decayed. In England the infant mortality was 132 per 1000; in France it was 137, in Belgium 155, in Italy 172, and in Germany 204: On those figures there was no need for despair or disappointment. Since 1870 the general death-rate had dropped, from 22 to 15 per 1000, and they could not pull down the general rate without affecting the infant rate.- The birth-rate had dropped from 35 to 27 in the same period. In 1870 the infant mortality was 153 per 1000, as against 132 in 1906. Illiteracy also affected infant mortality. In 1870, 148 husbands per 1000 signed their marriage lines with a cross, as against sixteen to-day, while for" the women the figures were 199 against 20. Th* length of life also had increased. Relatively infant mortality was declining. At the age of one week, London, notwithstanding its difficulties, had 24 deaths per 1000, where rural

districts had 26. That was partly due to the prompt and kindly medical attendance given 'in so many of the poorer districts. At the end of the first month of child life, London and the country were equal, aqfcl at the end of the first year,,. where London would have 131 infant deaths per 1000, the country would have anything from 85 to *110. Considering the growth of population and the immense difficulties of town conditions, there was no reason to be disappointed. Taking a town like Burnley, which had 22,000 wives or widows, 7500, or about 33 per cent., went to work. The mortality of children of tho working women was twice as much as that among the children of the non-working married women. Of 486 infant deaths in Burnley, 343 wer.e preventable. The factory and the workshop women made for immaturity? prematurity, and deformity among the children, the artificial food they were given being the cause, he believed, of rickets and the anaemic condition of many of them.