INFANTILE MORTALITY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13499, 14 August 1907, Page 8

INFANTILE MORTALITY.

APPALLING FIGUIIES.

The high rate of mortality of infants lias been occupying the attention of medical men almost the wide world [over. Dr. Norris, chairman of the Melbourne Board of Health, has prepared a very exhaustive report with the object of showing the need of safeguarding illegitimate or "natural" infant life. It reveals an appalling state of affairs. From 1902 to 1906 the natural births equalled about oue-twentieth of all the births throughout the State, and one-ninth of all the births in the metropolis. In 1903 the mortality per 1000 among natural infants tinder 1 year of age was 273.7; in 1904, 199.1; in 1905, 216.1; and in 1906, 236. The average mortality for all infants of a li"ke age during the period 1902-1906 was 94 per 1000. The average for natural infants in the same period was 241 per 1000. "These appalling figures," Dr. Norris remarks, "do not fully measure the harvest of ills which result from the evil conditions causing the mortality." It is estimated that for every infant that dies at least two more are permanently injured. Thus over 700 out of each 1000 infants born either died or bore marks of injury to body or mind. In Victoria there is nothing to prevent the disposal of an infant by the payment of a lump sum, but this is prohibited in New South Wales. Victqria appeals to be the only country in which the act is administered entirely by the police. There is no provision here for supervision of boarded out infants by specie llv qualified persons.

The principal cause of death in boarded out infants is improper food, and Dr. Norris points out that no substitute for mother's milk is equal to modified cow's milk. The objection to foundling homes, Dr. Norris says, arises in many cases from the idea that they place a premium on vice, "as though vice ever had in view such a beautiful outcome as a healthy babe." There would, howover, be much to gain by the establishment of a foundling hospital and mothers' refuge in conjunction with one or more receiving homes, though such an institution on the old lines would bo undesirable. He considers that tho proposed institution should be near to, but not in, the centre of population, and under the control of. specially trained medical women and nurses. The grounds should be spacious and the institution largely self-supporting. The milk, and as far as possible the meat and other food, should be produced on tho premises. At foundling hospitals in the past "not only the coats, but the very minds and souls, were brought to one colour, and that, for the most part, drab" ; but this need not be so in the future.