STUDY OF INFANT MORTALITY BY THE RUSSELL SAGE 



FOUNDATION 



By the Chairman, HASTINGS H. HART, LI,. D. 



At the request of Mr. Homer Folks, Chairman of the Com- 

 mittee on Institutional Prevention of Infant Mortality for the 

 New Haven Conference of 1909, the Department of Child- 

 Helping 1 of Russell Sage Foundation undertook a preliminary 

 study of the mortality of infants in institutions. The time avail- 

 able was so brief that it was not practicable to undertake an 

 intensive study of the subject, but only to secure those facts 

 which are already available in published reports, or in the 

 statistical material accumulated by the officers of the institutions. 



Thirty institutions were visited by a special agent of the De- 

 partment, including infant asylums, foundling asylums and other 

 institutions which care for infants under 2 years of age. The 

 statistics furnished were obtained partly from the reports of 

 state boards of charities, partly from the published reports of 

 institutions, but mainly from the statistics furnished by the super- 

 intendents of institutions. 



The most gratifying spirit of co-operation was evinced by the 

 authorities of institutions who furnished the information, even 

 in cases where it involved a large amount of work, and in cases 

 where the showing was, on its face, unfavorable to the institution. 



It became evident at the outset that it would be unjust to 

 publish the statistics with reference to particular instituions, 

 for the reason that the mortality rate in many cases was affected 

 by circumstances out of the control of the institution. For 

 example, some institutions send all sick children to hospitals, 

 and such children appear on their records as "transferred to an 

 institution" ; while other institutions furnish hospital accommo- 

 dations, and all infants who die figure in the mortality records. 

 In other cases it was found that it is the practice to board out 

 delicate children in private families, and the statistical custom 

 varied as to whether such infants are recorded in the mortality 

 list of the institution or not. In other cases it was found that 

 moribund infants were returned to their mothers, and in such 

 cases they appear as "returned to mother," and their deaths are 

 not reported. 



58 



