118 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



sistence in the use of food that has caused disordered digestion 

 is shown to develop cholera infantum, or some other grave form 

 of disease. High temperature is everywhere recognized as one 

 of the chief provoking causes of diseases of the stomach and 

 bowels, particularly among children under two years of age, 

 whether nursed at the breast or artificially fed. These dis- 

 eases in their inception are frequently mere disturbances of 

 digestion caused by heat, or the deterioration of food, or the 

 unwholesomeness of diet. According to the weekly mortuary 

 reports of our cities, the diseases of this class alone are referred 

 to as the cause of over twenty-five per cent, of all deaths oc- 

 curring during the summer months ; and the mortality among 

 children under five years alone increases the death rate in 

 cities from one-fourth to one-half over the other months of the 

 year. As heat seems to be the constant attendant, if not the 

 chief cause, of the ' summer complaints ' of children, and 

 consequent great mortality among them, it is obviously an 

 element to be taken into special account, and, therefore, de- 

 sirable to provide for those who are actually sick, quiet apart- 

 ments or homes, where they can have free ventilation and pure 

 air of a moderate temperature." 



The time will probably come when a large number of in- 

 fants will be sent to spend their early years away from the 

 hot and malarious districts where their parents are compelled 

 by imperious business to live ; and no better place than the 

 Coast district of California can be found for the rearing of 

 children. A large part of the mortality of infants in the East- 

 ern States is caused by scarlet fever and cholera infantum. 

 These two diseases carried off respectively 5,645, or ten per 

 cent., and 2,683, or four per cent., out of a total of 52,659 in 

 Pennsylvania, and 479, or five per cent., and 227, or two and a 

 half per cent., in California, in the mortality year of 1869-70. 

 In Pennsylvania fourteen per cent., and in California only seven 

 and a half per cent, of all deaths, are chargeable to those two 

 scourges. Pennsylvania was selected for comparison because 



