Infant mortality in Scotland / the report of a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Committee.

  • Great Britain. Department of Health for Scotland. Scientific Advisory Committee on Medical Administration and Investigation.
Date:
1943
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Infant mortality in Scotland / the report of a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Females that produce the first litter when they are old have difficulty in deliver- ing their young, and generally are poor mothers. Females that are permitted to reproduce and lactate at a young age are not so productive as are animals that have some further development following puberty before they begin producing and raising young. Although the differ- ence is not large, the interval between litters is longer and the size of the litters is smaller for those females that reproduce and lactate early in life. ADDENDUM, JULY 19438 As this Report is being completed, there is in the press (Richards, Brit. Med. J., 1943) an account of a breeding experiment with rats at the Rowett Research Institute, designed to determine the effect on reproduction of a poor human diet with and without supplements. The supplements tested were milk, calcium, vitamin B, and yeast, separately or in different combinations. The results are shown in the following two tables. Table 60—Showing Breeding Results for 3 Consecutive Matings Litters Weights of Does. born. 5 Average g. Dietary Bere seal sein at peters No. | weaning es sy FS C OrmM allv Orn daea Teare er er ta Supplements. ae per litter. per litter. litter Barn (litters of 8). - At After Ai : g. first third reared. mating. | lactation.! | — 24/4 6°9 0°8 5°4 33°6 185 228 Milk 30/14 8°8 0°5 6°3 39°1 186 255 Ca : 27/13 8°6 03 6°9 35°1 202 239 Ca+milk 21/14 9°2 0-5 T'4 40°5 196 273 Aneurin. . | 27/15 8:0 1°9 6°2 o2°2 186 214 Aneurin-+milk | 27/14 8°7 0°4 6°8 38°7 185 243 Ca-+aneurin 33/17 7:9 0°6 6°5 36°5 193 258 Ca+aneurin + milk 27/18 9°9 0-4 qh! 41°9 186 268 Ca-+yeast 30/25 9°8 0°6 7:4 40°9 206 266 | Ca+yeast + milk 33/23 9°8 0°8 7:0 45°8 209 302 1 After rearing litters of 8. Table 61—Deaths during Suckling Periods | . No. of Young. Deaths during Suckling. No. of Supplements. Does. Born In reduced ite litters (after | 2-6 days. | 7-11 days. | 12-23days. | Total. ‘| 24 hours). — 18 431 356 20 3 16 39 Ca 16 425 354 8 3 0 1] Aneurin . 18 451 361 7 0 3 10 Ca-+aneurin 20 529 416 9 1 0 10 Ca-+ yeast 21 615 458 4 0 0 4