554 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



again, the rural rate is generally below that of the cities and consider- 

 ably below the infant mortality of the mining and industrial centers. 

 Compared with Scotland, the entire country has a decided disadvantage. 

 Yet the nature of the problem is somewhat simplified on reflection 

 that the results of an earlier investigation of death rates disclosed the 

 fact that the mortality of the sons of peers before the age of six was 

 less than one third of that obtaining among the rest of the population. 

 On the other hand, many English and American cities record rates 

 lower than the average rate prevailing in the rural district — an 

 eloquent argument for the possibilities of many of our cities. The, 

 statistics of 1881-90 for Massachusetts showed average variations dur- 

 ing the decade from 111 to 239 deaths per 1,000 births. The former 

 rate marked the healthfulness of a residential town, the latter portrays 

 the conditions existing in an industrial center. Yet in some of the 

 manufacturing towns where no tenement-house evil existed the infantile 

 death rate was comparatively low. Other American cities show varia- 

 tions equally wide, and even within the same city the most contrasting 

 conditions continue to exist. The lowest rates for cities of considerable 

 size are recorded for Seattle, St. Paul and Minneapolis. The pre- 

 vailing rates are approximately 100 deaths per 1,000 births, according 

 to their records, which some authorities have, ho.wever, pronounced as 

 giving too favorable a showing. Many of the larger cities double the 

 death rate for infants, while in numerous southern cities it rises to 

 almost criminal proportions. John Spargo has pointed out the dif- 

 ferences that may exist within a single city and exemplifies them by 

 quoting a rate of 94.4 per 1,000 in the Back Bay district of Boston 

 against a proportion of 252.1 for one of its poorer districts. Some 

 of our own cities have clearly blazed the path of progress. Buffalo 

 and Bochester, N. Y., have during the decade 1890-1900 made notable 

 reductions in the percentage of loss from infant mortality. Better 

 inspection of the milk supply and increased watchfulness of contagious 

 diseases, especially those of children, have contributed to this end. In 

 Buffalo compulsory vaccination of school children was instituted and 

 circulars distributed which contained instructions concerning the care 

 of children. Among cities which have done noble service during the 

 same decade in reducing the mortality of children under five are Lowell, 

 Lawrence and Haverhill, Mass., Newark and Jersey City. All these 

 had high rates of mortality and present rates still exceed those of 

 many of our cities in which conditions are naturally more favorable. 

 The many remarkable ameliorative changes of the past fifteen years 

 only indicate the possibilities whose limits have not yet been reached, 

 while much pioneer work still remains to be done. In view of the 

 declining rates and the wide variations in them, the existing differences 

 refuse to be explained away, and we can not assign them all to natural 

 causes. Some cities, especially those of the Pacific coast and the moun- 



