The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1875-10-21

The diseases of children under a
civilized state of society is the sub
ject of some startling statistics from
the pen Of DIR. Stephen Smith. He
addressed q meeting OF the Ladies'
Aid Society OF Grace Chapel, in New
York city, during the summer, and
his remarks were little circulated at
the time because the people were of
pleasuring. They may well be noted
now, since the SdllitGridn 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 10000 children in New
York of these as many die as of the
1000, 900 grown inhabitants. The
mortality of one-tenth the whole
populace, and that the helpless tenth,
| Is equal TO that of the nine-tenths re-
manning. Well does the physician
say that il such mortality existed
among sheep the country would be
alarmed. It is not so with the little
children, of whom three-fourths of the
one-half we have cited die under one
year old. The nursery, therefore,
and the mother must be at fault.
Out of the 10000 infant dead-none
over five years old-S, 900, or One-half,
die Of foul air or filthy diseases, and
two-fifths die in tenement houses.
TWo-fifths also die in the warm
months from April TO Septemher- =
July and August taking off 5000 1T
tie people. DIR. Smith fOrmulates his
position, therefore, as follows (:
"rhe children die in excess while
confined to the nursery of diseases
contracted in or aggravated by the
nursery, especially in the tenement
houses, and in the warm months OF
the year."
DR.. Smith proeeeds to examine an
ordinary 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 un-
hathed bodies of the sleepcrs, the IN
summed mattress, the bundles of old
garments hidden away, the closets
crammed, the pantry smelling, the
diluted milk, the indigestlble parts OF
the butchers meats, the huckstered
and overboiled vegetables, the rancid
cooking fats, the bottle-fed offspring,
the unwashed, unexercised children.
He adjures the Ladies' Aid Society tO
visit the city by districts, leaving nc
part uninspected, and to inform the
100, coo mothers of New York how tc
purify their households and save theiI
babes.
Lime and carbolic acid to cleanse
the walls, dry serubbing for the dirty
floors, rubbing for the furniture, all
and holiday for the little occupants
He says that it is no difficult thing
with efficient and organized mission
ary work, to save the lives of seventy
five per cent of the 16, 900 dying chill
dren of Manhattan Island, and re
marks that an enterprise which re
duced the annual morality to 4,U0t
funerals instead of four times foul
would dwarf all other municipal i'm.
provements-
In these times we are learning anew
the lesson we had disdained, tina
| modern Improvements do not dis
pense with daily and constant labor
and that great parks and architecture
do not permit missionary work tC
stop.s The wiekedness Of the poo
CLASSES IN New York Is intimately as
sociated with their condition in child
hood. Clean the child aud the integ
uments of the criminal is softened
Give air and light to the dwelling auC
you put q window in the soul. Th'
physical condition OF the aRerag,
child in New York City is as bad as i
/ is in the Jews, Ghstto of Rome OF il
old st. Giles and Drufy Lane Of Lon
don. Our women are too idle anC
voluptuous. Let them organize will
ladies' aid societies like that of Gracl
Chapel and find work for the brain
the body and the heart.