The children's hospital, the medical school and the public / by L. Emmett Holt.
- Luther Emmett Holt
- Date:
- [1913]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The children's hospital, the medical school and the public / by L. Emmett Holt. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![[89] hospitals; and often lacking in proper medical control, by their excessive mortality they have served as an example of how little philanthropy without science can accomplish in saving infant life. In maternity hospitals infants are tolerated as one of the unavoidable incidents of obstetric practice. But the provi- sion for them, and the attention bestowed upon them, even in our best institutions, is something which shocks the pediatrist. Certainly they have as yet failed to appreciate the hospital requirements of young infants. The need for special hospitals for contagious diseases is latterly becoming generally felt. Of the fifty cities in the United States with a population over 100,000, thirty-four have already established hospitals for the reception of the com- mon contagious diseases, scarlet fever, diphtheria, etc. All but ten of these have come into existence since 1900. They are most important but limited in their sphere of activity. They have not supplied the need of a place where the common dis- eases of infancy and childhood can be studied and treated. The necessity for special hospitals entirely devoted to chil- dren is something which is even yet scarcely appreciated in the Unfted States either by the medical schools or the public. Only twenty-two cities are now provided with special hospitals for children. Is there a need for such institutions? Since hos- pitals are for the care of the sick, one may well inquire, who are the sick? Yital statistics of New York City show that twenty years ago 41 per cent of the total deaths were in chil- dren under five years, and that now, in spite of the great reduc- tion which has taken place, these still form 33 per cent of all deaths. In the United States Census for 1910, Baltimore ranks seventh among the cities having the highest infant mor- tality, being exceeded only by Fall River, Lowell, Richmond, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Scranton. New York, with all its overcrowding, ranks fifteenth. The mortality in Baltimore of children under five years is the ninth largest in the cities of the country having a population over 100,000. It is surely incum- bent upon the public to see to it that the age which includes fully one-third of all deaths should have adequate hospital pro- vision made for it, and, what is even more important, adequate](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22447957_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
