Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I Infant And Child Mortality. Historical1 1. Introductory. The abstract right of the child to life has slowly received concrete expression in measures designed to reduce infant and child mortality. Happily the history of the world demonstrates the possibility of almost unlimited progress. The gradual decrease in mortality during the centuries indicates that ameliorative forces have been constantly in operation. Mortality rates both for infants and adults depend upon many complex considerations, and society is learning the social, economic, and physiological factors which determine the fluctuations, gains, and losses. The economic conditions, the social environment, the moral and intellectual standards, and the advance in medical science of any community are reflected in the vitality of its children. In fact, the infant and child mortality of a people is a barometer of their social progress. 1 The subject of vital statistics has become increasingly important in the United States and will, we hope, ere long faithfully reflect our general mortality rates and enable us to reason concerning our social and economic defects, and to point out the improvements possible along other scientific lines, including, of course, the medical. We are far behind other countries in this respect. Especially is this true of the older European countries, which have all given considerable attention to the careful collaboration of statistics on these vital matters. They are, therefore, able to follow more closely and with greater accuracy the exact tendencies which are evident. About one third of our states (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Columbia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, California, C...