228 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE MILK QUESTION 



births as compared with 173 per 1000 births for the 

 city, and Liverpool of a mortality among depot 

 babies of only 89 per 1000 births.'' As a matter of 

 fact, the Liverpool figures are even more favorable 

 to the depot than that. Dr. Hope published par- 

 ticulars concerning 4453 babies kept under close 

 observation, showing a mortality of 78 per 1000 births 

 as compared with an average of 167.3 for the city as 

 a whole.^' 



Upon the whole, the figures show plainly enough 

 that the infants' milk depots do lessen the mortality 

 of infants, their influence upon the total infantile 

 death-rate of a city depending, naturally, upon the 

 proportion of the infantile population supplied by 

 them. The difficulties which confront us when we try 

 to separate the influence of the depots from other 

 influences are perfectly natural. We can no more 

 hope to determine the exact share of each individual 

 agent in the progress that is made, than we can hope 

 to determine the exact share of every unfavorable 

 condition in forcing the death-rate of infants up to 

 such distressing heights. The remedial forces, like 

 the forces of ill, are blended and interwoven. There 

 is no means whereby we may weigh each factor, 

 either in the sum of ill or the sum of good. 



Much more satisfactory are the statistics relating 

 to the experience of Rochester, already cited. In 

 this case, also, we are aware that other factors beside 



