The Express.
London, England, 1864-09-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10.

AMONG the revelations made by the Officer of
Public Health none are more startling than those
which relate to Infant Mortality. Few of our read-
ers will be prepared to learn that there are whole dis-
tricts in England—rural districts, they are called—
where a deliberate practice of infanticide is the
custom of the country. Not that it is of that
horrible kind of which the Coroners of the Metro-
politan districts denounce the prevalence to an
alarming extent ; but if less direct in its criminality
it is certainly-more destructive to the young growth
of the population, and, if possible, more revolting
in its deliberate and unnatural cruelty.
A certain average of infanticide is, it seems, quite
accepted in the large manufacturing towns, as a
destructive agency of tolerably regular operation.
So we find these places spoken of as " Inland-
" tidal " to a higher or lower rate. Of course,
one meaning of this awful term is, that in
these crowded dwelling-places the battle of life
being always a struggle, mothers are compelled to
bear more than their share in the conflict ; all
that forms a home is shattered, and the younger
the children the more fatal is the conse-
quence. "Infants who should be at the breast
" are improperly fed or starved, or have
" their cries of hunger and distress quieted
"by those various fatal opiates which
" are in such request at the centres of our
" manufacturing industry." The well-known sani-
tary defects of the houses in which the manufac-
turing population live, and to which much infant
mortality is due, are to a great extent remediable ;
but here we meet with a problem of social science
hard to deal with. We cannot suppose that any-
thing but the fiercest want can so far dull the
mother's natural love of her child as to lead her to
this dire neglect, and the effort to meet this want
is one that it is difficult to say should not be made.
We cannot prevent those mothers from leaving
their wretched homes to go to the mill ;
the question ia, can any practical means be
found for protecting the unfortunate offspring
Inquiry made officially into the operation of these
causes of infant life destruction in towns ha, shown
that, while the children ware perishing under all
this neglect and mismanagement, the mothers
were becoming more and more " denaturalised
" towards their offspring ; commonly not troubling
" themselves much at the death, and even some-
" times (it was believed) taking direct measures to
" ensure it." To give some definite representation
of the extent to which this destructive agency of
young life is at work, here are the figures showing
the infantile death rates. The lowest rate of any
district in England is 7,047 per 100,000 children
living under one year of age ; in 15 other
registration districts the annual death-rate is
9,085 per 100,000 living. These may be
taken as the fair average of infant mortality.
But in 62 districts it becomes from 20,000 to
22,000, and in Hoo in Essex, Wolverhampton,
Ashton- under,Lyne, Preston, Nottingham, Stock-
port, and Bradford it reaches 25,000, while in
Wisbech and Manchester the death-rates are
nearly equal—a dense manufacturing city and a
retired rural district--being respectively 26,001
and 26,125.

The discovery of this enormous mortality of an
agricultural district, equalling the obviously
noxious agencies in their most concentrated form
in a great city, was at first sight quite unaccount-
able. It was concluded that there must be
some destructive force at work here foreign to
that which arises in all collective employments ;
but on investigation it turned out that the same
causes precisely were producing the same effects.
It was discovered that in consequence of the
quantity of land in these wide marshy districts
being reclaimed and brought under cultivation,
female labour of every grade had been brought
into use, exactly as we see is the case in the mill
and mining districts. Dr. liretza, the medical
officer who examined into this painful subject,
came to this conclusion, and with a certainty
impossible to gainsay. The opinion of about seventy
medical practitioners and others well ac-
quainted with the condition and habits of
these poor people, agreed completely that
a more fatal enemy had been introduced than
the agues and fevers which prevailed in those dis-
tricts before they were cultivated, by this employ-
ment of mothers and the whole female population
in the fields. It appears that largo " pugs" of
women, girls, and buys are worked together under
the charge of an " undertaker," who contracts
with the farmer. These gangs will travel many
miles from their village, dressed in short petticoats,
often with coats and boots, and sometimes trou-
sers, "looking wonderfully strong and healthy,
" but tainted with a customary immo-
" rality, and heedless of the fatal results
" which the love of this busy and independent life
" is bringing on their unfortunate offspring pining
"at home." %V 0 need not enlarge upon the