226 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE MILK QUESTION 



for Paris applies to children under one year, while 

 some of the children attended the Consultation up to 

 two years of age. The Consultation, moreover, can- 

 not be fairly classed with the infants' milk depots. 

 Turning to the English depots, we are confronted 

 by the same difficulties. Either too few children are 

 connected with the depots, statistics are not intelli- 

 gently kept, or they are open to serious question 

 owing to the fact that many factors are unaccoimted 

 for. Some figures were published in connection with 

 the Liverpool and Battersea depots three or four years 

 ago which will go far to illustrate the latter point. 

 From 1896 to 1900 inclusive, the average death-rate 

 per 1000 births of children under one year old was 

 188. In 1901 the first Liverpool depot was opened, 

 and the rate for that year was also 188 per 1000 births. 

 In 1902 a second depot was opened and the work 

 greatly extended in its scope. That year the death- 

 rate' of infants was only 163 per 1000 births, and in 

 the following year there was another decline, to 151 

 per 1000 births.*' Battersea's depot was opened in 

 1902. Prior to the opening of the infants' milk depot, 

 the average mortality among infants under one year 

 old, during the five years immediately preceding, was 

 161.8 per 1000 births. In 1902, the year of the open- 

 ing of the depot, the number fell to 136 and the follow- 

 ing year it again declined to 135 per 1000 births." 

 These figures by themselves would indicate an un- 



