136 



AGE-INCIDENCE OF CAUSES OF INFANT MORTALITY 



GROUP D. POST NATAL, AND PREVENTABLE! CAUSES. 



Whooping cough 2,761 



Diarrhea and enteritis 37,049 



Acute bronchitis . . 

 Broncho-pneumonia 



Measles , 



Meningitis 



Diptheria and croup 



Other epidemic 



Scarlet fever 



Tetanus 



Pneumonia 



4,322 



7,023 



1,162 



2,640 



831 



54 



245 



430 



7,799 



64,316 



Tetanus should undoubtedly come first in the order of prox- 

 imity to birth. This proximity is indicated clearly by the age 

 distribution in the first five years, and also by what we know 

 of the unavoidable trauma which occurs to every placental mam- 

 mal at birth. These 430 deaths even in the absence of express 

 testimony, may be ascribed to the first month of life, and the 

 significance of the figures will be enhanced by the probabilities 

 associated with the mortality under one year from septicemia 

 (209 deaths) and from erysipelas (566 deaths). Other substantial 

 accessions are due also from the unknown and ill-defined causes 

 of death occurring in the first month of life. 



For other members of this group, I have made charts show- 

 ing the time relations of their several mortalities to the neo- 

 natal period. After tetanus, meningitis is probably the first 

 to arrive in this period, but the term is rather vague, and I 

 therefore pass it. 



The three respiratory diseases, bronchitis, broncho-pneumonia, 

 and pneumonia, appear to be next in order. The English mor- 

 tality from these causes begins on the first day of life, and reaches 

 the maximum at the beginning of the third month. In the 

 second year, the mortality falls to one-third of its magnitude in 



