A NEW SCHOOL. 



By Ethel M. Minett. 



At a time when our high rate of infant mortality, and the possible 

 remedies suggested, are receiving attention in all minds interested in the 

 health of our colony, it may be of interest to review some of the methods 

 in use in other countries for the improvement of infant welfare. 



Each country has its own special difficulties, in climatic or industrial 

 conditions, the degree of civilisation and education of its people, and its 

 capacity for support of increased population, but taking the rate of infant 

 mortality in various European countries, it is found to be lowest in purely 

 agricultural countries, such as Norway. Sweden, and Denmark, higher in 

 industrial countries such as France and Austria-Hungary, and highest in 

 Russia, where the great mass of the peasantry is still in an uneducated 

 and poverty-stricken condition. 



Jamaica and Ceylon, with hot climates, come high in the list, while 

 Australasia has, possibly by means of its energetic legislation, succeeded 

 in bringing its infant death-rate to a level equalled only by the purely 

 residential or agricultural centres of England — a rate of only 60 to 90 

 deaths per 1.000 births, while we in British Guiana lose yearly about 230 

 to 280 of every 1,000 born 



If statistics of the causes of death in infants of under one year be 

 noted, the same two causes will be found to head the list in almost every 

 case — first, diseases of the alimentary tract, and second, diseases of the 

 respiratory tract. This means that neglect or ignorance of proper feeding 

 and proper protection from changes of temperature are responsible for by 

 far the greater proportion of infant deaths. This applies not only to 

 European countries, but even in higher degree to tropical countries, where 

 the epidemic diseases peculiar to early years of life, such as scarlet fever, 

 diphtheria, whooping cough, and measles, are almost negligible in their 

 fatal effects. 



These, then, are the chief evils against which a campaign must be 

 carried out. 



Infant welfare schemes fall usually under three heads : 



(1) The forcible removal of causes or conditions leading to these 

 evils. 



(2) The prevention or amelioration of the results of these causes 



or conditions. 



(3) The education of public opinion, to lead in time to the volun- 



tary prevention of these evils, and to the removal of their 

 causes. 



