358 MEDICAL SECTION 



In a paper read before the Royal Statistical 

 Society, in 1912, Dr. Dudfield said: " I cannot help 

 thinking that we are approaching the lowest limit 

 of the rate of mortality which can be expected to be 

 attained by the present methods of prevention. Such 

 methods are, for the most part, concerned with post- 

 natal causes of mortality. Ante-natal causes, except 

 so far as ordinary sanitary activities may affect them, 

 have not been taken up at all." 



The purpose of this paper is to present a brief 

 statement of the campaign carried on by the New 

 York Milk Committee during- the last twenty-two 

 months, its object being the reduction of the so-called 

 " unavoidable " infantile mortality, due to ante-natal 

 conditions. The work has been carried on in certain 

 districts in the Borough of Manhattan, where inves- 

 tigation showed the births and infant deaths to be 

 most numerous. The Borough of Manhattan is the 

 old city of New York. It is the most congested of 

 the five boroughs comprising the greater city. Some 

 of the wards, with an area of from TOO to 200 

 acres, have a density of population of from 500 

 to 700 per acre. Certain city blocks run as high 

 as 1,500 to i, 600 to the acre. In the entire borough, 

 which contains the wealthiest as well as the poorest 

 districts, an average of over thirty people are housed 

 in each dwelling. Over 47 per cent, of the popula- 

 tion are foreign born, and an additional 35 per cent, 

 are of mixed foreign and native parentage. Of the 

 births reported during the years 1910 to 1912, 677 

 per cent, were to foreign born parents, and in another 

 9*8 per cent, the mother was of foreign birth. Not 

 only is the proportion of children of foreign born 

 parents very high, but in 54*4 per cent, of all births 

 the parents came from Russia, Poland, Italy, and 

 Austria- Hungary- -the most difficult class of people 

 to deal with on account of ignorance and their ten- 

 dency to segregate and live according to the customs 



