Farmers' Week in AgricuUural College. 235 



Tlie child who helps most to swell this list of dead, is the iinfor- 

 tuuate foundling or institution infant. A committee appointed under 

 the Sage Foundation to investigate conditions in certain of these in- 

 stitutions in the east, found that in some of them the death rate of 

 infants of one year and under was 75 per cent, of those entered, and 

 that 40 per cent, was the average of the 30 institutions studied. 



Until complete and accurate registration of all births and all 

 deaths are made, we cannot hope to help many of these cases, but 

 when we do have these two lists, how easy it will be for the statistician 

 to point out the plague spots in every state, town and community, 

 and when these are made public, what a stirring around will result. 

 Who would care to live in a town that had 30 per cent, infant mortality, 

 when he could live where it was 15 per cent.? Doctor Fisher of Yale 

 lias investigated the causes of death of the infants who died in 1908, 

 and finds that 55 per cent, of these deaths were unnecessary. The lit- 

 tle fellows were brought into this w^orld and then not given a fair 

 chance — not even an opportunity to fight for their lives. One hundred 

 thousand useless deaths in one year, 100,000 homes heartbroken use- 

 lessly! The cost of the average infant burial is ten dollars. That 

 means one million dollars spent for burial expenses that might have 

 been spent making babies laugh and gurgle and grow strong. Most 

 mothers know Dr. Holt and feel he is a personal friend. Here is his 

 opinion given in a recent address in the east : 



"Forty per cent, of infant mortality has been adjudged to be pre- 

 ventable. As a general average there are 28 cases of sickness for each 

 death. The amount of preventable sickness is thus seen to be enor- 

 mous. Of infantile deaths 25.9 per cent, are due to tuberculosis, acute 

 respiratory diseases, as influenza ; contagious diseases, as whooping 

 cough, measles and diphtheria. These are all capable of reduction 

 through proper housing, isolation and medical treatment. Fifty-two 

 and five-tenths per cent, are due to gastro-intestinal diseases. This is 

 capable of great reduction through proper care and feeding. ' ' 



How much better to have had that $1,000,000 plus the $5,600,000 

 doctor bills, invested each year in the education of parents on the care 

 of these babies. We would still have those 100,000 babies left as a 

 national asset, and a year's training for the parents that would mean 

 untold health and happiness for the generations to come. 



To come at once to the root of this problem we must acknowledge 

 that in the -end it is the parents who are responsible for infant death. 

 National legislation. State law and civic council can, and have done much 

 along the line of sanitation, housing, control of contagious disease and 



