CHAPTER VII 



INFANT MORTALITY 



THE awakening of the world to a consciousness of the 

 immense sacrifice of infant life is recent ; most of this 

 awakening has come during the past twenty years. Sta- 

 tistical studies upon an extensive scale have shown how 

 colossal and almost universal has been the "slaughter of 

 the innocents." Thus infant deaths (under one year) at the 

 present time amount to from twenty to twenty-five per 

 cent of the total deaths in all civilized countries. On an 

 average it may be said that of every one thousand infants 

 born, two hundred of them die during the first year of life; 

 that is, one fifth of all our babies never reach the stage 

 where they can walk or talk. 



Infant deaths are largely preventable. Adult deaths 

 are inevitable. Herein is the helpful sign of this problem. 



During the last ten years over two million babies less 

 than a year old have died in the United States. That is a 

 number equal to a dozen flourishing cities. Because these 

 two million prospective citizens were babies, only their 

 parents and recently a few sanitarians paid much attention 

 to the loss. The baby is the citizen of the future, and it is 

 certain that the lives of very many babies can readily be 

 saved in the United States each year. Estimates, varying 

 with the optimism of the statistician, state that from fifty to 

 seventy-five per cent of these deaths are preventable. 



The economic importance of the subject has been forced 

 upon the attention of certain European countries, particu- 

 larly Germany and France. The steadily declining birth 

 rate in almost all the higher civilized countries makes the 

 saving of infant life of national importance. The decline 



