The management and medical treatment of children in India / by Edward A. Birch.

  • Birch, Edward A. (Edward Alfred), 1840-1912.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The management and medical treatment of children in India / by Edward A. Birch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    more trying to children in India, but before and after chap.' i. that period they thrive at least as well in India as in Europe up to five years.” Dr. Payne has done Dr. Payne’s an important service by placing on record facts which are no less startling than instructive, in that they conclusively demonstrate the results actually attained by good management. He show's that, “ while in the native town of Calcutta,* infants die as they die only in the most fatal countries, European infants, with 5'8 per cent, of deaths in the year, enjoy in Calcutta a degree of vitality which surpasses that of the most favoured spots elsewhere.” Again, there is in Calcutta an institution named the European r^buHs iu Female Orphan Asylum, of which Sir J. Fayrer has written a sanitary report for six years, commencing January, 1863. It seems that there was during that period an average of 65 inmates, varying in age from 1 to 18 years, the great proportion being between the ages of 5 and. 16. “ The abstracts of admission * Dr. McLeod tells us that of the total infant mortality- in Calcutta in the year 1884, “ 55 per cent, of the deaths took place within 15 days of birth. This also is in accordance with the experience of preceding years. The tetanus, which accounts for so large a proportion of the casualties, occurs and runs its fatal course within a few days of birth. As regards sectional mortality, Burrahazar gives a ratio of 50 deaths among 100 living infants. The following sections show rates exceeding 40 and falling short of 50 per cent.:—Shampooker, Sukea’s Street, Jorabagan, Jorasanko, Moocheepara, Cullingah. Among these, the sections Jorabagan and Jorasanko approach 50 per cent, very closely. The remaining sections are below 40. TaltoUah approaches that rate very closely, and Waterloo Street indicates only 1 per cent. These results correspond with and confirm the statistics referring to race displayed in previous tables.”
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