166 INFANT MORTALITY'S URGENT CALL FOR ACTION 



of deaths under 1 year by the number of births, per annum 

 still-births excluded instead of by division of the number of 

 deaths under 1 year by the living population under 1 year, as 

 would be the case were the time-honored method of computing 

 the death rates at all other ages applied to infant mortality. 

 The infant mortality ratio being worked out on a basis posi- 

 tively unique, it is therefore obvious that it cannot properly be 

 compared, or contrasted, with the commonly accepted death 

 rates for any other ages. The basic facts and especially the 

 elimination of still-births from the figures for both births and 

 infant deaths being established, it is now in order to present in 

 the briefest possible form the urgent call of infant mortality for 

 remedial action. 



The foundation on which the call for action rests necessarily 

 consists of statistical data on the subject, which, with references 

 to their several authorities, are presented in the various tabular 

 compilations appended to this paper. Fully appreciating the 

 fact that the eye, rather than the ear, is the proper medium for 

 conveying to the brain the force of statistical arguments, I shall 

 not cloud this oral discussion of the subject with any confusing 

 array of mere figures, but by a brief resume of the final show- 

 ing of the appended tabulations and certain graphic presenta- 

 tions of their significance shall endeavor to demonstrate that 

 the moving cause for the organization of this Association is by 

 no means one of the mere sociological fads of the current era of 

 reforms practical, and so-called reforms utterly impracticable, 

 but is one of the most essential, and most far-reaching, problems 

 which now confront the human race. 



That this problem is world-wide in scope is conclusively 

 proven by a tabulation of the infant mortality of 31 of the 

 principal foreign countries for the quarter-century ending with 

 1905, which I compiled and published about two years ago and 

 have appended to this paper as Table 1. Summarized in a single 

 sentence, this table shows that on a broad average for 20 of the 

 principal countries of Europe no less than 162 out of every 1,000 

 babies born alive died before completing the first twelve-month, 

 in the 25 years ending with 1905, and that in that same period 

 the average ratio of deaths under 1 year to living births in 31 

 of the leading countries of the world, even including the seven 

 divisions of Australasia with their exceptionally low rates of 

 infant deaths, was 154 (see Chart 1). For only about one- 

 half of these countries are the infant mortality rates for the 

 three years, 1906-8, now obtainable, and the 16 countries in ques- 

 tion had an average infant death rate of 133 in 1906-8, as con- 

 trasted with one of 142 in 1901-5, and one of 150 for the 25-year 

 period ending with 1905. 



