250 HISTORICAL RACES 



generally to be exposure or debility following on the results of 

 ignorant and careless treatment, among the races of this group 

 the actual cause of death is usually disease to which children 

 have been more or less predisposed by the treatment they have 

 received. 



There is little exact evidence as to the conditions among the 

 historical races, but the general impression gained from the 

 hterary evidence is that infant mortahty was high. The high 

 rate of child mortality among Asiatic races is well known. In 

 the period 1902 to 1911 the average deaths of children for one 

 thousand births was in the United Provinces 352, in Bombay 320, 

 in Burma 332, and in the Punjab 306. ^ Referring to these 

 figures, Wattal comments on the * extremely unsanitary con- 

 ditions of child-birth and the appalling ignorance prevalent on 

 the subject '.^ With regard to ignorance it is everywhere the 

 same story. Of the modern Egyptians we are told that ' the 

 children are foul in the eyes, and are allowed to munch such 

 indigestible dainties as beans and bread as soon as they have 

 teeth with which to bite, while the mother protests to the lady 

 doctor that nothing but milk has ever passed the child's lips, 

 though its little hand may actually be holding a hunch of raw 

 potato '.^ 



Of the Middle Ages again there is no exact evidence, but all 

 we know points to a very high child mortality. Some figures for 

 the eighteenth century from the country have been quoted and 

 doubtless there was a considerably higher death-rate in the 

 towns.* From the general conditions and from the prevalence 

 of disease it is obvious that it could not have been otherwise. 



Within the last century there has been in most European 

 countries a considerable decrease in child mortality. The degree 

 of mortality varies greatly from country to country. For the 

 same period as that for which the Indian figures were given the 

 figures are for England and Wales 127-3, France 132-4, Germany 

 186-6, Hungary 207-6, New Zealand 64-4, Sweden 84-4, Austraha 

 87-5, and Scotland 116-1.^ Some further reference to this subject 

 and particularly to the differences between the various countries 

 will be made in Chapter XI. 



5. With this reference to the importance of disease, war, 



' Wattal, Population Problem, p. 20. ^ Ibid., p. 21. * Bal]3, Egypt, 



p. 224. For Chinese Tibet see Wilson, Abode of Sjww, p. 193. * See Rubin, 



J. R. S. S., vol. Ixiii, p. filO. ^ Wattal, loc. cit., p. 20. 



