STUDIES ON INFANT MORTALITY. 157 



In this paper we do not attempt to give the etiology of the condition. 

 A mierobic origin for it is not excluded, as we have not been able to 

 enter upon this phase of the investigation because of the length of time 

 elapsing between the death of the patient and the time of necropsy, and 

 the press of other work; but if the condition is of mierobic origin, its 

 manifestation is entirely different from that produced by other organisms 

 that we know. There is no inflammatory focus in the lungs or else- 

 where. 



Clinically, the cases were not seen by either of us, and all the infor- 

 mation we have was obtained by the medical inspectors and is contained 

 in the tables. The inspectors give the history that the patient is sick but a 

 few hours, or, at most, but a day or two. The parents, however, do not 

 recognize that the child is ill until its condition is very serious, or until 

 it is almost dead. The probability is that it has been ailing for some 

 time, possibly since its birth. 



Nearly all of the infants examined were under 2 months of age, and 

 but few were above 2|- months old. Almost without exception they were 

 breast fed, and in no case was rice or other artificial food .found in the 

 stomach. The mothers in nearly all instances exhibited some symptoms 

 of beriberi. Many of them give the history of having two, three, or 

 even five or more children die from similar symptoms. The disease is 

 well known among the native poor, who call it "taon" or "suba" (pro- 

 pably the latter is the more common name), and who dread it very 

 much. 



In a careful analysis of the pathologic findings by necropsy in a series 

 of 219 infants dying under 1 year of age, we found the above-described 

 condition, which, for want of a better term, we have designated as "moist 

 beriberi," to be present in 124 cases. The following summary gives an 

 analysis of all of those cases. 



Table showing results of necropsies on 219 infants 1 year of age or under. 



Beriberi 124 



Cholera 33 



Pneumonia 18 



Meningitis 6 



Enterocolitis 6 



Other diseases 20 



Undetermined " 12 



Total. 219 



* In some of the undetermined cases the findings were obscured by post-mortem 

 decomposition; other bodies were greatly emaciated and death seemed to be due 

 to a lack of assimilation of food. 



