692 
The following table gives the number of deaths from gastrointes- 
tinal diseases per thousand deaths in infants of less than 1 year of 
age in certain parts of the Departement du Xord : 
Table 4. — Deaths from gastro-intestinal disease per 1,000 infant deaths, Depart e- 
ment du Ford, France. 
District of Dunkerque 445.08 
Canton Bergues 410. 61 
Canton Bourbourg.. 485. 38 J 
Canton Wormboudt 602. 86 j 
Canton Gravelines 404. 40 
2 cantons of Dunkerque. 465. 00 
District of Lille 401. 26 
Canton Armentieres 416. 66 
Canton Quesnoy-sur-Lille 420. 28 
Canton Seclin 383. 37 
Canton Launay 398. 87 
Canton Rontaix 464. 33 
District of Lille — Continued. 
3 cantons of Tourcoign 457. 77 
8 cantons of Lille 427. 83 
District of Hasebrouck 395. 20 
Canton Merville 363. 60 
Canton Steen voorde 394.44 
Canton Casse] 454. 66 
3 cantons of Bailleul 431. 11 
District of Valenciennes 313. 92 
Canton Denain 342. 10 
Canton Conde 337. 07 
Canton Boucbain 392.40 
In Germany, which has the second highest infantile mortality rate 
in Europe, being surpassed “ in this bad eminence ” only by Russia 
(which in some districts has an infantile mortality rate surpassing 
500, and for the whole country one of 270), we find that the infantile 
mortality rate for the quinquennium of 1901-1905 is as follows : 
Table 5. — Average infant mortality under 1 year per 1,000 births in Germany, 
1901-1905. 
1901 207 1904 196 
1902 183 1905 205 
1903 204 
In 1901 the average rate for 323 German cities and towns having 
a population of 15,000 or over was 202 ; in 1905 it was 201. 
In the latter year the average rate of 12 German cities each with 
a population exceeding 100,000 was 202, and for the twelve months 
ending June 30, 1906, was 198. The returns of that year from these 
12 German cities show further that of 67,637 infant deaths no less 
than 28,123, or 44.03 per cent, were due to diarrheal disease. 
The excellence of the German system of registration of vital sta- 
tistics permits us to examine the local incidence of deaths from gastro- 
intestinal disorders. 
I have taken the liberty of combining two of the tables in Harring- 
ton’s® admirable article into the following, which shows the birth 
rate, the diarrheal death rate, and, finally, the percentage the diar- 
rheal death rate constitutes of the total infantile mortality in the 42 
German cities listed in the table for the twelve months ending June 
30, 1906 : 
Harrington, Am. Jour. Med. Sci., Vol. CXXXII, pp. 811-35. 
