4 INTRODUCTION, 
was a total of 2,150 instances of loss of life, occurring yearly 
in a single institution, chargeable, not against any unalterable 
decrees of Providence, as some are disposed to contend as an 
excuse for their own negligence ; but against the ignorance, 
indifference, or cruelty of man. And what a lesson of vigi- 
lance and inquiry ought not such occurrences to convey, 
when, even now, with all our boasted improvements, ew 
tenth infant still perishes within a month of rts birth 1” * 
The effect of attention to cleanliness and ventilation in the 
reduction of an excessive infantile mortality, has been equally 
shown in the experience of the Dublin Lying-in Hospital. 
At the conclusion of 1782, it was found that out of 17,650 
infants born alive, no fewer than 2,944, or one in every sia, 
had died within the first fortnight. By the more efficient 
ventilation of the wards, the proportion of deaths during the 
first fortnight was at once reduced to 419 out of 8,033, or 
but little more than one in twenty; and it has subsequently 
been still further diminished. 
In the island of St. Kilda, the most northern of the Heb- 
rides, according to the statement of a gentleman who visited 
it in 1838, as many as eight owt of every ten children die 
between the eighth and twelfth day of their existence ; in 
consequence of which terrible mortality, the population of the 
island is diminishing rather than increasing. This is due, | 
not to anything injurious in the position or atmosphere of the 
island ; for its “air is good, and the water excellent:” but 
to the “ filth in which the inhabitants live, and the noxious 
effluvia which pervade their houses.” The huts are small, low- — 
roofed, and without windows ; and are used during the winter 
as stores for the collection of tfanure, which is carefully laid 
out upon the floor, and trodden under foot, till it accumulates 
to the depth of several feet. The clergyman, who lives 
exactly as those around him do, in every*respect, except as 
regards the condition of his house, has reared a family of four 
children, all of whom are well and healthy ; whereas, accord- 
ing to the average mortality around him, at least three out of 
the four would have been dead within the first fortnight. 
It is not a little remarkable that a recent sanitary inquiry 
carried out by order of the Danish government, into the com-_ 
1 Dr. A. Combe on the Physiological and Moral Management of 
Infancy. 
