632 
tion area and the poverty in detail of their statistical returns. A 
reference, however, to the report of the Bureau of Census for 1900 
shoAvs that the general infantile mortality rate per thousand in the 
States which constituted our registration area at that time is as 
follows : 
Table 1. 
District of Columbia 274. 5 
Rhode Island 197. 9 
Massachusetts _ 177. 5 
New Hampshire 172 .0 
New Jersey 167.4 
New York 159. 8 
Connecticut 156. 8 
Maine 144. 1 
Vermont 122. 1 
Michigan 121.1 
These figures show the wide variations to which the infantile 
mortality rate is subject in different parts of this country. The low- 
est mortality rate, 121.1 (Michigan), is less than half the highest 
(Washington, D. C.). 
On comparing them with foreign countries, however, they do not 
strike us as extraordinarily high. The death rate of Washington, 
I ). C., is similar to that of Russia, while the rate of the lowest (Michi- 
gan) corresponds to that of Scotland, but exceeds that of three other 
European countries, viz, Ireland (average of twenty years 1874 to 
1893, 96.6), Norway (1902, 75.08), and Sweden (1902,^107). 
As is to be expected, our cities show a higher infant mortality rate 
than our States. The census report of 1900 gives 106 towns and 
cities which have an infant mortality of 175 or over. The maximum 
infant death rate was shown by Charleston. S. C., with a rate of 
419.5, while Los Angeles, Cal., with a rate of 175, occupied the last 
place. 
The following cities showed a death rate of over 300 per 1,000 
births : 
Table 2. 
Charleston, S. C 
419. 5 
Atlanta, Ga 
306. 0 
Savannah, Ga 
887.5 
Fall River, Mass 
304. 7 
Mobile, Ala 
. 344.5 
Lynchburg, Va 
301. 7 
Key West Fla 
311. 8 
Richmond, Va 
300. 1 
Biddeford, Me 
_ 311.6 
The following large 
representative cities had an infantile 
mor- 
tality rate as follows: 
Table 3. 
Washington, D. C 
274.5 | 
, Brooklyn, N. l r _ 
197. 2 
Baltimore, Md 
. 235. 1 
Boston, Mass 
194.1 
New Orleans, La 
229.2 
Borough of Manhattan 
190.9 
Philadelphia, Pa 
197. 2 
New York, N. Y 
189.4 
