INCIDENCE OF DISEASE IN ONE THOUSAND INFANTS UNDER TWO YEARS OF AGE

Abstract

The importance of infant mortality statistics is now recognized in all parts of the civilized world. They play so important a part in every problem confronting the nation that voluminous books and reports have appeared analyzing mortality figures and suggesting methods of decreasing mortality. Very few, if any, comprehensive studies have been made of infant morbidity so far as we know, and yet this important field deserves investigation because death is nearly always preceded by disease. If accurate figures, from which to study the incidence of disease, were available and were recorded in such a way that the causes and influences which are responsible for illness could be analyzed, many factors of importance would undoubtedly come to light. Ashby¹emphasizes the fact that "infant sickness not only leads to a deplorable waste of human life, but also sows the seeds of weakness, deformity and impaired vitality in those who