ABSTRACT
CHILDREN Three topics are particularly important to
Disease, however, knew no social distinction. Innoculation almost eradicated small-
143 CHILDREN
pox (there was one epidemic late in the century) but whooping cough accounted for twofifths of all deaths under five years of age. From five to eight, scarlet fever was the leading cause of child mortality. Measles regularly killed 7,000 people a year; tuberculosis was common; and in the 1860s and 1870s diphtheria became a major killer of children under thirteen.
