ie. During the next five years eighteen more are recorded on the
death-list. Hence, at fifteen years of age only six hundred and
eighty-five remain out of the one thousand born. When these figures are
considered, and the additional fact that out of those who survive very
many bear permanent marks of imperfect nourishment or of actual disease,
the consequence of maladies contracted in early life, the importance of
our present inquiry--the care of infancy--will be apparent to all
mothers.

The younger the infant, the greater the danger of death. _One-tenth of
all children born die within the first month after birth_, and four
times as many as during the second month.

The mortality is much larger in cities than in the country. In Dublin,
during 1867, very nearly one-third of all the persons who died were
under five years of age. In the same year forty-three per cent. of those
who died in the eight principal towns of Scotland were children below
the age of five. In Philadelphia, during the same year, forty-five per
cent. of all the deaths were of children under five years of age. In New
York fifty-three per cent. of the total number of deaths occur under the
age of five years, and twenty-six per cent. under the age of one year.

The danger of death lessens as the period of puberty approaches. Yet,
even in the last years of childhood there is a greater liability to
disease and a larger proportionate loss of life than during youth or
middle age.

CAUSES OF INFANT MORTALITY.

What are the causes of this startling mortality of infant life? Why does
one child out of ten die in the first month, and only three out of four
live to be five years old? And what are the means of prevention?

Some of the causes which are active in producing this mortality among
the little ones cannot be successfully opposed after birth. Such, for
instance, are imperfect and vicious developments of internal organs
existing when born. These malformations often result from inflammation
while in the womb, excited by some taint of the mother's blood, or by
some agitation of her nervous system. Means of prevention in those cases
are therefore to be directed to the mother, in the manner indicated in
treating of pregnancy. But other causes of death begin to act only after
birth, and are to a greater or less extent avoidable. These are largely
traceable to ignorance, negligence, and vice.

One cause of death to which infants are peculiarly liable, and