204 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [JunC 



It follows that, although a portion of the lowered death-rate in 

 18G6 was due to the unusually small number of inftmts received 

 from the country, the balance, as compared with the average of the 

 years before and after, viz., no fewer thm 550 lives, or 5-4 per 1 ,000 

 inhdntants, may fairly be assigned to the anti-cholera cleansing. 

 What a rebuke it gives to the members of the Council, and to the 

 citizens who intrust to their care their own health and the very 

 lives of their little ones, that in each succeeding year, notwithstand- 

 ing the yearly boast that " the city was never so clean before," the 

 death-rate has risen even above the previous number, humiliating 

 as that is as compared with much larger and more crowded cities ! 

 This table further rebukes those who attribute our excessive 

 mortality to the strangers received at the Foundling Hospital, by 

 showing that the average deduction to be made for this cause 

 only amounts to 1'7 deaths per 1,000 inhahitants. 



At the discussions which were held at the Natural History 

 Society on this subject, a great variety of causes were assigned 

 for the excessive mortality among our children. Probably all of 

 these have more or less effect ; but many of them apply with fully 

 equal, if not greater force to other cities ; and others again apply 

 to the country districts just as much as to ourselves. Thus the 

 frightful number of unwelcome children born among us, averaging 

 400 yearly, besides those who are provided-for by their parents) 

 may be attributed in part to the large garrison which has been 

 till lately stationed here ; but it is the fruit of the same sin that 

 curses humanity eslcwhere. A large number of infantile deaths 

 are undoubtedly caused by the drunkenness of their parents ; but 

 Montreal is not an unusually drunken city. The milk sold by 

 many dealers is of inferior quality; but taking the city through, 

 it is probably better and cheaper than in most English cities. 

 Errors in diet, and deficiency of parental care are undoubtedly 

 grievous causes of disease ; but there is no reason to think that 

 Montreal mothers are less careful and enlightened than in the 

 country round : they ought to be more so. As to unripe fruit, 

 &c., the country children get far more of it than we; and at the 

 ages at which city children get most of it, it has been proved that 

 they are unusually healthy. And as to the idea that catholic 

 infants are predisposed to death from exposure to cold through 

 the custom of early christening, it so happens that the coldest 

 months, during which this cause ought to operate most, are by 

 far the lowest in the death-rate. 



