Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-08
WHY THE BABIES DIE.
Statistics on a Great Crime of lg-
norance in Enlightened Days.
A PLAIN TALK FROM 4 DOCTOR.
What Late Chemical Analysis and Expert
ence Has Established.
SHIRLEY DARE ANSWERS QUERIES
WRITTEN ron THE DIsPATCH.I

1
The appalling mortality among infants in
nearly every civilized community of the
world has many indirect causes, but the
great and direct cause, especially among
those who are under the age of / year, is
unquestIonably the Use of improper food
In North America it is estimated that from
one-quarser to one-third of all the deaths in
a community occur among children under 1
year of age Most of these children have
died of some digestive disorder, from 40 to
| so per cent of these being due to gastric or
intestinal disease. In the second year Of
life the cause of death is more commonly
some respiratory disease.
Infants, as a rule, are born with healthy
digestive apparatus, but while their organs
are sound they are also highly sensitive
Their tissue cells are vastly more delicate
than the adults Their circulation is much
more rapid and there is more blood in their
tissues. Ignorance of their physiological
requirements for food is one great cause
why they are SO frequently furnished with
an indigestibe or innutritious artificial
diet, or why they are prematureIy taken
from their natural food.
What the Statistics Show.
1t requires no argument to prove that the
natural food of the helpless baby is best, but
if such were required it is amply provided
in the experience of orphan and foundling
asylums, where the children are from nec-
essity aitifcially fed. Until recently the
records from such institutions showed that
nearly 100 per cent, or practically all in
I,aI hafa fha IF
year.
In Randall's Island the death rate among
the naturally fed children was almost 16 per
cent, while among the bottle-ied it reached
Is per cent In English manufacturing
towns, where the factory employment of the
mothers prevents their nursing their chill
dren, only one-half of these reach the age of
two years In Munich the mortality of
naturally-fed children is only Is per cent,
that of bottle-fed S5 per cent
Observations upon the physical develop
ment of children who survive indicate how
unfavorable is an artificial diet for complete
GROWTH for instance in Manchester, where
63 per cent of the naturally-fed children
were found to be well developed, only 10
per cent of the handled babies were equally
we'll grown.
There are many reasons why artificial
diets fail to nourish the baby, but they all
depend upon the fact that they are gener-
ally verv unlike the food that nature has
provided and that the physiological condi-
tions of the baby cannot well sustain any
such changes.
Rapid Growth OF the Child.
The baby needs the same elements in its
food as the adult, but glance at its grow
ing organism shows that it requires these in
very different proportions, as well as in the
| Ill n
weight of from 61& to pounds, the child
month and tripled it at the end of the first
year, while in length it has grown from
about 19 inches to q inches in the same
period of time.
This increased weight and length is
shown in the size and strength of its mus
cles, and in the increase of the skeleton.
The muscles of baby only equal one and
half pounds of its weight while in the
adult the muscles weigh 80 pounds, an in
crease OF 80 fold. To sustain such growth
it is evident the baby needs large amount
tissue, viz, albumen, and this in larger pro-
portions than an adult whose body is no
longer storing up new elements.
The skeleton of new born child weighs
only about one pound, but before it has
grown to adult proportions it must increase
25 times its weight For this lime salts are
of Importance, and are required in large
amounts, not only for the skeleton, but also
to assist maturitive changes in the other
tissues and digestion, which cannot go on
without these minerals. Fats are no less
necessary for nutrition. as they form large
element in nerve and brain tissue. The
brain of a baby is much larger in propor-
tion to its body than that of an adult, and
requires more than twice as much fat as the
muscles, while the nerves require seven
times as much.
Must Have Sugar and Water
A fourth element in the required dietary
is sugar, representing the carbohydrate
class of foods This is generously repre-
sented in the mothers milk, and with fat
performs the useful function of preventing
too rapid waste of other tissues. Finally
we must add water to the list, forming as it
does large part Of every bodily tissue and
proportionately more in that Of an infant
(over 66 per cent? than in the adult.
The milk contains each of these ele-
ments albumen, fat, salts, sugar and water,
as has been many times demonstrated by
chemical experiment, and it would seem at
first sight that it could make little or no
difference to the infant whether the milk
came from human being or from one of the
lower animals, such as the COW. But we
find upon more intimate acquaintance with
the milk of other animals that it presents
many curious anu important olnerences
lrom pm motners MIX.
FIRST, as REGARDS the aloumen OF milk, so
necessary 1or the nody building OF the grow
ing paoy' we ma tnat COWS milk has a
larger proportion OF aloumen than mothers
milk. While at first sight this might seem
a desirable addition, inasmuch as it wonld
appear to increase the nutritive value of this
huid, as matter OF fact experience shows