MORTALITY OF BOY-BABIES.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13269, 26 August 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

MORTALITY OF BOY-BABIES.

Jn size, and weight the baby-boy" starts lifo with an average advantage of four or five ounces over their little sisters, but the girls 6eem better ablet to resist the unfavorable influences that, carry off such a large proportion of infants. A writer in the British Medical Journal (London, March 25), who riscusses this fact seems unable to give any adequate reason for it. Ha writes:

'The first indication of a distinct/ J pathoJogica 1 predisposition is shown by the greater ortaLity anions male infants, so much so that oven though more males are born, by the end of the ' first year of life females predominate, j Tetany is said to he more frequent in ' boys and convulsions in girls, and the latter display an overwhelming liabiliy to suffer from chorea. . . . The difference cannot be due to any lack ot care affecting the male infant; on the contrary, in most countries the birth of a boy is the source of special congratulation. No influence can bo invoked to explain this excess of mala deaths except a less resistance to disease —a proclivity that operates in all latitudes 'Taking the co-efficient of mortality among female infants as I<K>, that ot boys has varied from 123 in and 1-1 in France to 110 in ServiaWd Japan. This proportion holds good even in countries with a high all-roundi rnfantilo mortality, and the ratio is much the same during the age-period 0-j years. In the age-period 5-15 the raitost for the two sexes are almost identical, but after 20 years of age the mortality among females again falls. {Speaking generally, it may perhaps bo said that the hoy reacts more violently to disease than the girl, is more easily knocked over than the latter, does not! recuperate as quickly when the illnesSi takes a favorable turn, and does not offer as much resistance when from chronic affections." w