The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-10-14

The diseases of children under civil
lied state of society is the subject of some
startling statistics from the pen of DIR.
Stephen Smith. He addressed meeting
of the Ladies' Aid Society of Grace
Chapel, in New York city, during the
summer, arid his remarks were little cir
culated at the time because the people
were off pleasuring. They may we'll he
noted now, since the Sdnitarian Magazine
has Just reproduced them.
Five years of age is the dividing line
between the junior and the elder dead.
Half the yearly deaths in New York are
of children under five. There are 120,-
900 children in New York; of these as
many die as of the 100000 grown in.
habitants. The mortality of One-tenth
the whole populace, and that the helpless
tenth, is equal to that of the nine.tenths
remaining. Well does the physician say
that If such mortality existed among
sheep the country would be alarmed. 1t
is not so with the little children, of
whom three.fourths of the one-half we
have cited die tinder one year old. The
nursery, therefore, and the mother must
be at fault. Out of the 10000 infant
dead--none over FIVE years Old-8,000, or
one-half, die of foul air or filthy diseases,
and two-fifths die in tenement houses.
Two-ffths also die in the warm months
from April to September-July and Au-
gust taking off 5000 little people. DIR.
Smith formulates his position, therefore,
as follows:
"The children die inexcess while con-
fined to the nursery of diseases contracted
in or aggravated by the nursery, especial
ly in the tenement houses, and in the
warm months of the year."
DR.. Smith proceeds to examine an Or
dinary series of apartments: the garbage,
the drains, the dust on the mantel and
grease on the wall, the spongy decaying
floors, the crevices Of dirt, the unwashed
streets and unbathed bodies of the
sleepers, the upsunned mattress, the
bundles of old garments hidden away,
the closets crammed, the pantry SMELL
ing, the diluted milk, the indigestible
parts of the butchers meats, the huck-
stored and overlooked vegetables, the
rancid cooking fats, the bottle-fed off
spring, the unwashed, unexercised chill
dren. He adures the Ladies' Aid So
ciety to visit the city by districts, leav-
ing no part uninspected, and to inform
the 100000 mothers of New York how
to purify their households and save their
babes.
Lime and carbolic acid to cleanse the
walls, dry scrubbing for the dirty floors,
rubbing for the furniture, air and holiday
for the little occupants He says that it
is no difficult thing, with efficient and
organized missionary work, to save the
lives esofseventy-five per cent. of the 16, 900
dying children of Manhattan Island, and
remarks that an enterprise which re-
duced the annual mortality to 1000
funerals instead of four times four would
dwarf all other municipal improvements.
In these times we are learning anew
the lesson we had disdained, that mod
ern improvements do not dispense with
daily and constant labor, and that great
parks and architecture do not permit
missionary work to stop. The wicked
ness of the poor classes in New York is
intimately associated with their condi-
ton in childhood. Clean the child and
the integuments of the criminal is soft
cned. Give air and light to the dwell
ing and you put window in the soul.
The physical condition of the average
child in New York City is as bad as it is
in the Jews Ghetto Of Rome or in old
st. Giles and Drury Lane of London.
Our women are too idle and voluptuous.
Let them organize with ladies' aid So
cieties like that of Grace Chapel, and
find work for the brain, the body and
| tho heart