New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-08-04
The Midsummer Child.SlRughter.

We wish the people of this city could
become thoroughly aroused to the terrible
significance of the fact that 4O2 infants have
been carried off from their midst in one
week. Why should children die off more
rapidly in the center of New York than
they do in the fever.nests of Whitechapel
and other densely -crOwded siums of the
British metropolis! Why should rate of
infant mortality which would create a po-
sitive panic there be regarded with COM
parative Indifference here! The first ques-
ton will never be seriously pOndered till
we cOntriye to change the state of public
sentiment indicated in the second. The
prime necessity is to awaken the people to
the gravity of the situation, and that can
only be done by persistent and close COM
parisOn with other cities. Here are the
latest figures of the English registrar gem
eral bearing upon the infant mortality
among the three and a quarter millions of
people inhabiting the metropolitan district:
Diarrheal diseases carried off GO persons in
London during the last week in June; of
these IS were infants under one year. There
were 81 deaths from scarlet fever, % from
measles, and ) from diphtheria.
Suppose these diseases had been as fatal
in London as they were in New York three
weeks later, the figures would have assumed
the following proportions: Instead of So
infant deaths from diarrhea, there would
have been 1927 deaths; instead of 81 fatal
cases of scarlet fever, there would have
been 149; instead of measles causing %
deaths, it would have caused 10Y, and in
stead of there being only ) victims of diph-
liberia, there would have been l66. In other
words, IN New York during the third week
Of July there were eighteen times as many
infant deaths from diarrhea as there were
in London during the week last reported;
scarlet fever was more than four times as
fatal; measles was five times as fatal,
and diphtheria was thirty-three times as
fatal.
The difference against New York revealed
by these figures is simply appalling. 1t is
true that the third week Of July is, with us,
the most fatal of the year, but for several
weeks to come the infant deaths in this city
will probably be only a trifle lower than the
terrible rate OF last year, and by the time
shall undoubtedly find that in these eight
weeks our one million people have lost more
infants than are sacrificed out Of the $780,
0O0 Of London population during the entire
year. At this rate, the tenement-house pop.
ulation of New York-for they, of course,
are the chief sufferers-will shortly cease to
be able to bring their children to maturity
at all, and New York will become place to
which laboring men will come with the GER
tainty Of having their homes rendered DESC
late.
There can be no question that the ex-
cessve infant mortality of this CITY is q
preventible evil, and it concerns the very
existence of the city itself that its causes
should be removed. We must find some
authority strong enough to grapple with
the abuses of overcrowding, defective sew
erage, poisonous accommodations of liquid
and solid filth outside of the homes of the
poor, and defective ventilation and neglect
of the simplest sanitary measures inside.
The root of the evil must be reached by
vigorous and comprehensive system of
public administration, which, hopeless as
it may appear now, has only to become
fixed public demand to be attained. The
laboring class Of this city have strong
affections for their children, as well as
those more fortunately situated. Once let
them fairly understand that dishonest
sewer contractors, aided by corrupt
inspectors, that a rotten street-clean-
ing bureau, an inefficient police sys-
TEN and an imperfect building law,
are among the causes that bring
death so often into their homes, and we
should soon have such an ortburst of indig-
nation against the administration of public
analrs as would put speedy end to its
present iEbecility. Meanwhile, the poor
children, who are dying by hundreds need
an organized system Of medical attention.
Whatever organization can show any abil-
ity to relieve the terrible distress of the pin.
ing little ones ought to be encouraged. The
Children's Aid Society is doing a good deal
in this direction, and only needs public sur.
port to do still more. But every church and
every mission in the city can find room to
cooperate in so extensive a work. 1t needs
a careful selection of instruments and inces-
SAINT and minute attention. But surely no
nobler work can be recommended to Chris |
tan men and women than the saving of in.
FAINT lives, and the dispelling of one of the
keenest of sorrows from the homes OF the
poOr-Ne,c York Times.