Second report of the Clinical Hospital for Diseases of Children, Stevenson Square, Manchester : containing data on the social, hygienic, and climatic agencies affecting the health and mortality of the children of the operative classes / by A. Schoepf Merei and J. Whitehead.

  • Schoepf Merei, Agost, 1804-1858.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second report of the Clinical Hospital for Diseases of Children, Stevenson Square, Manchester : containing data on the social, hygienic, and climatic agencies affecting the health and mortality of the children of the operative classes / by A. Schoepf Merei and J. Whitehead. 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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    ^8 Under 6 months of age .. Per ecnl 29 ) ]8}124 Between 6 „ and 1 year, of 195 )) „ 1 and 2 years 7> 49—14J » 2 ,, 3 „ .. .. ....of 220 >> 9— 4,o „ 3 „ 14 „ . ..of 602 77 12— 2 Of 1548 patients died 117— From these data may be seen the enormous preponderance of disease under two years, with a proportionate rate of mor- tality still more striking ; both the diseases and their relative destructiveness considerably diminishing after the second year,— so much so, indeed, that the rate of disease during the second year stands in proportion to that of the third, as 3 to 2 ; and the relative destructiveness of disease during the second year, stands to that of the third, as 7 to 2. It is further shown, that of the 117 patients who died, .93 were affected with disorders of digestion, nutrition, and development; of these 93, 82 were under two years of age ; no child, normal in its digestion, nutrition, and structural de- velopment, died of convulsion ; only one such child succumbed to epidemical diarrhoea (which occurs 22 times in the list of deaths); and altogether, of the 1548 patients only 24 died of diseases mainly of atmospheric, miasmatic, and, to a small extent, hereditary origin, without being constitutionally weak- ened by the above named disorders of digestion, nutrition, and development. PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF MORTALITY. From the facts at command, it appears, 1st. That 61 per cent, of the diseases happened in children under three, and 47 per cent, under two years of age ; and also that of 117 deaths, 96, i. e., about 82 per cent., occurred to children under two years of age. 2nd. That of the 117 deaths, 93 relate to children affected with diseases arising from defective or faulty nutrition, which