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The Infants' Milk Depot: its History and Function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

G. F. McCleary
Affiliation:
Medical Officer of Health of Battersea.
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Several causes have contributed to bring the problems of infantile mortality into greater prominence during recent years. The increased interest in child-study, the growth of humanitarian feeling, and the rapid decline of the English birth-rate during a period of Imperialist expansion have combined to set a higher value upon infant life. In this connection less is heard of the “survival of the fittest” and the “devastating torrent of babies”; the fear of over-population which induced many to regard a high rate of infantile mortality with complacency has faded before the danger of depopulation, and the so-called doctrines of Malthus have given place to the gospel of Fecundity. To those engaged in the work of preventive medicine the continuance of a high rate of infantile mortality in spite of the great improvements in public health administration of the last thirty years is a problem of special interest. The following table shows that although the general death-rate has steadily declined since the early seventies there has been no corresponding decline in infantile mortality, which in fact has increased during 1886–1901. The comparatively low rates in 1902–3 are explained by the exceptional meteorological conditions prevailing during the summer months:—

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Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1904