236 ERRONEOUS IDEAS ON INFANT MORTALITY 



not strictly accurate, for we are estimating according to location 

 in the city, knowing little of the social conditions of the individual 

 deaths. There is a smaller infant population by one-half or 

 three-fourths among the rich than among the poor. When a 

 child of the wealthy takes sick during summer it is usually out 

 of town, and if it dies, that death is not registered against the 

 city or that section of the city. There are more breast-fed babies 

 among the poor, and this compensates in many cases for the lack 

 of luxury or sanitation. The methods of investigation should 

 include a most thorough one of all deaths of infants, including 

 relation to feeding and social conditions. Don't make figures 

 and statistics gathered in unreliable and haphazard ways fit your 

 theories, but make theories proven by reliable scientific investi- 

 gations. 



