, 1912-07-03

most places in the world within and out
side of the tropics. \ healthier climate is
hardly to be found, less sickness either.
But what then? Yes, the cause is revealed
as soon as we deal with the mortality in the
different age classes, and it then appears
that the cause Of the great mortality is-if
| may nse the e~Xpression-the least par
douable of all causes, the great mortality
among the children.
| have earlier written fully on this mat
ter and Will refer to a rather long article
in the Avis of S April 1885, and have dur
ing Governor Arendrup's time III several
ways endeayoured to advise the Govern
ment with regard to this question, but as
will be seen from the following figures,
hitherto without result for it now APP
pears, that
in 1909 there died 7S5, of whom there were
in the age class 0-5 years 1870, that is to
say more than half of the deaths. and rs
55S were born it means that I Of the Child
rem born were dead after the lapse of ;
years.
IN 1910, GlS died, of whom 265 or AZ
per cent of all the deaths were in the age
class 0-5 years and nearly the half of all
the births.
In 1911, 695 died. in the class 0-5 years
34l, about the half of the total deaths and
Of the births.
Hence in 1909 10 and II 209S died.
whereof there were in the Il &c class o 5years
p times as many rs in the same age class
in Denmark and there can thus be no
doubt as to the reason Of the high mortal
ty. Now it must naturally be asked: But
what is the cause of the excessive infantile
mortality | shall first say what is not the
cause.
In the first place the cause is not the eli
mate For in the ueighbouring islands, SO
far as | have been able to learn, no infan-
tile mortality answering to ours is known.
1t IS thus, for example, a well known fact
that Barbados has a considerable excess
Of births over deaths
And what we call the special infantile
diseases small pox, measles. scarlet fever,
diphtheria, Group, whooping-c ugh and the
like, which together with cholcrine, cause
most Of the deaths Of children ut home, are
either, like scarlet fever, entirely unknown
here, or for example diphtheria, Group,
small poN, make their appearance so
extremely seldom, and then not in epido-
mic form us in Denmark, In the last
Is years for example we have only known
occasional measles and Whooping cough
epidemics. Thus in the year 1908 there
was an epidemic of measles here, which
was the cause of the unusually high death
rate that year (see abovc), but otherwise
the 3 years had no great epidemic.
The true causes Of the great i~nfantile
mortality are exclusively dcl ending on mai
nutrition, This will be readily seen by going
more fully into the causes Of death during
the 3 years under consideration.
| have already remarked that most sta
tistics are imperfect. This holds good
also Of the statistics Of the causes Of death,
it is SO everywhere. They are ncycrthe-
less used everywhere, and even if a set of
statistics is not completely correct in its
details, there can he no doubt that when
used subject to intelligent criticism it can
give as nearly accurate results as humanity
speaking can be expected. An lnconve-
nience in the mortality statistics, SO far as
concerns the causes of the deaths, out here,
a., r,H as ii d9aac, is this, that the corpse
inspections are made by physicians only
in the towns, but in the country by per
sons who are not physicians. To that IS
to be attributed the large number of
causes unknown" entered on the corpse
inspection certificates. If we now look fur
ther into the question we find for the year
1909, with 1870 deaths Of children III the