DR. HELEN MACMURCHY'S PAPER 113 



Quite right that our visitor should mention the 

 infant mortality rate of Ottawa, but why did he not 

 also mention the infant mortality rate of Woodstock, 

 another city in Ontario, in the year 1908, which was 

 only ninety-eight per thousand births ? Why did he 

 not refer to the infant mortality of the Province of 

 Ontario as a whole, which was 125 in 1908, 131 in 

 1909, 1 20 in 1910, and 117 in 1911 ? 



In 1909 'the Hon. W. J. Hanna, Provincial 

 Secretary of Ontario, gave orders for the preparation 

 of a Special Report on Infant Mortality. This was 

 printed by order of the Legislative Assembly, and 

 published early in 1910. As far as the Department 

 of the Provincial Secretary can find out, it was the 

 first special report on infant mortality issued by any 

 Government. This does not show " a complete lack 

 of any thinking about the problem." A second 

 special report on infant mortality was published in 

 1911, and a third in 1912. These reports were 

 available when our visitors were in Toronto. 



In considering infant mortality in Canada, there 

 is one reason that should be mentioned why, all over 

 Canada, the infant mortality rate appears higher than 

 it really is. Here it is in the words of those who 

 know best. 



Dr. George G. Melvin, D.P.H., Medical Health 

 Officer for the city of St. John, New Brunswick, 

 says: " There is good reason to believe that many 

 births have not been recorded. The foregoing- 

 nominal rates, therefore, are almost certainly too 

 high, and I particularly request, in case of publication, 

 that a note be appended to this effect." 



We have not only good reason to believe that a 

 large proportion of our births in Toronto are not 

 registered, we have actual proof of it. In 1911, Mr. 

 R. E. Mills, B.A., Fellow in the Political Science 

 Department of the University of Toronto, transcribed 

 from the baptismal registers of five large churches 



