, 1867-02-01
NUMBER =.

MORTALITY IN CHIEpRRS.-The mortality among
children in American cities is frightfnl one,
thl'd die in the FIRST year, and one half before
they have attaissla7 Their fifth year, Even here
there are gratifying signs Of an improvement
for mortality is much less than formerly. In
Geneva, records have been kept since 1890, and
II has been ascertained that child has now five
times greater chance of living to the age Of
twenty-one years than it had three centuries
ago. Notwithstanding occasional exceptions.
the rule has been one Of improvement and II
has been stated that during the last seventy>6ye
years the average period of human life has been
prolonged ten years. All must be humiliated
at theirg great mortality, unless an EXPLANATION
OF the fact can be discovered. 1t would seem
that we can succeed 10 raising domestic ami
mails, but fail in rearing our own children. We
believe that 1t is filth and its concomitants which
cause this great destruction of life. The heat
Of our summers is excessive but that alone cans
not account for it for there certain portions
of the city, where cleanliness, water, aud good
food abound which show very moderate bills of
mortality. Hot weather and filth which, CONS
bined, originate the thousand of odors which
vitiate the atmosphere, destroy tLese delicate
beings. To this cause must be added the bad
constitutions inherited from parents. Children
as rule, do not during the first four years of
their life, show the external signs Of this dis,
eased constitution but it exists, and undoubt-
the child less able to bear up against the des-
tructivc tendencies of disease. physician can
do very little with these inheritors of scrofula
and syphilis when attacked by other diseases
He is expected to treat them successfully, but
cannot explain to the dsconsolate arents the
cause of his failure. His resources are power
less against the sickness which Is made virulent
by the sins of ancestors and although be fails
be cannot but admire the infinite wisdom which
cuts of thus early those puny bodied aud feeble
minded creatures before they are old enough to
generate their kind. In the struggle for life the
weakest die and the strongest live, and by the
action of this law the race is improved.
What has been said of the causes of disease
among children may be applied to all the pres
ventable diseases of the race. Most of the fe-
vers, diarhGas, dysenteries and consumption,
are caused by bad air, impure water, insufficient
food and ill-ventilated dwellings and small
poI, measles, and scarlatina, although they have
d specific origin, are aggravated by the exist.
ence of these causes. From the neglect of sau-
itary precautions, two hundred years ago, the
cities would have become depopuated if it had
not been that they were constantly renovated by
new blood from the country and it is a fact
that even now, in our large Cities this source of
their inauguration is their salvation. All suffer
from the neglected causes Of disease, but the
poor pay the heaviest penalty. Their labor is
only capital, and the whole of it is often sunk
in the contest with disease. Drunkenness disr
soluteness, and wretcheduess are found growing
AUTfAuI meeus III hi places wnere bad air
aud poor food are found, and the offspring of
these sufferers is brought up in neglect, without
the physical ability to do the work of the world,
decrepit, diseased, and dependent. 1t is esti-
mated that to every death there are twenty>sev-
en- cases of sickness so that in New York on
.he supposition that there are eight thousand
Ireyentable deaths year, we have a total of
wo hundred and sixteen thousand cases of ILL
less which might have been prevented.