534 



ZOOLOGY 



Infant 

 mortality 



The slow 

 progress of 

 reform 



8. It is useful to make a study of some particular 

 field of endeavor, and perhaps none is more instructive 

 than that which deals with infant mortality. Dr. G. 

 B. Mangold shows that in 10 years the death rate of 

 infants under one year in New York City declined 31 

 per cent. In Los Angeles the improvement, according 

 to published statistics, was actually 43 per cent. For 

 the states included in the registration area in 1900, the 

 decline from 1900 to 1911 was 22 per cent. To what is 

 this due ? Broadly to education and the liberalization 

 of public opinion, both going back to scientific research 

 for the facts on which to proceed. Organization on the 

 one hand, and individual initiative on the other, have 

 worked this marvel. The public will has decreed that 

 houses shall be improved, that the milk supply shall be 

 guarded, that medical advice shall be provided, and so 

 forth. Yet it has all come through a process of gradual 

 reform, and history will record no dramatic events, no 

 groups of revolutionists defending barricades for the 

 sake of the babies. Most people have no idea what has 

 happened. 



