AUTHORITIES' RESPONSIBILITIES : DISCUSSION 141 



tered in the year 1912, distinguishing between those under 

 3 months old, 3 months old and under 6, and 6 months and 

 under 12. 



It appears from the foregoing table that the mortality 

 rate of infants under 3 months old was 51*44 per 1,000 births 

 registered; at 3 months of age and under 6 months it was 

 14*48 per 1,000; and between the ages of 6 months and i 

 year it was 20*46 per 1,000 of all births registered. 



It will be observed that of the principal causes of infant 

 mortality more than one-third is attributed to a group 

 wasting- diseases which includes deaths from prematurity, 

 congenital malformations, want of breast-milk, and atrophy, 

 debility, and marasmus. Diarrhoea and intestinal com- 

 plaints cause an infant mortality rate of 8*95 per 1,000 regis- 

 tered as compared with 20*02 in the preceding year; convul- 

 sions accounts for 977 deaths, bronchitis for 9*64, and 

 pneumonia for 7*41 per 1,000 births registered. Among the 

 common infective diseases whooping-cough is the most 

 fatal, causing 4*54 deaths, and measles comes next, causing 

 1*94 deaths per 1,000 births registered. The infant mor- 

 tality attributable to all forms of tuberculous disease is 2^47 

 per 1,000 of all births registered in Ireland during the year 

 1912, as compared with 3*00 in the year 1911. 



The explanation of the low rate in rural districts is that 

 a very large proportion of the mothers nurse their own 

 babies. This is the ideal which we are working for, and 

 when carried into effect we know the results are good. 

 Such knowledge is, therefore, a stimulus for all workers 

 interested in the welfare of infants to continue their efforts 

 and try, as much as possible, to induce mothers to follow 

 what Nature has always intended, viz., to feed babies by the 

 breast. 



The COUNTESS OF ABERDEEN said she had been asked to 

 open the discussion, and she must make an apology if she 

 did not say all she would like to, as she had only been called 

 upon at very short notice. She would like especially to 

 allude to the first paper read that afternoon by Mrs. Kitson 

 Clark on the work of voluntary health societies in Great 

 Britain, in order to supplement it by a little information in 

 regard to the same kind of work which was being carried 

 on in Ireland, and especially in the cities, where Sir William 

 Thompson had already shown the death-rate was naturally 

 so much higher than in the country districts. In Ireland 

 they were called babies' welcomes, and the infant consul- 

 tations babies' clubs. They were first started in Belfast. 

 and the whole idea of these institutions was very much on 

 the same lines as were organizations for the care of mothers 



