ABSTRACT
UNTIL the recent twentieth-century advances in obstetrics, child care and immunisation,
the death of babies and young children in Europe was a commonoccurrence. In the
mid-nineteenth century when the rapid growth of industrialisation led to the creation of
insanitary slums in the big cities, large numbers of children were killed by diseases such
as measles, influenza, chicken pox, cholera and typhoid. In 1911 the bad living conditions, poor food and lack of medical care led to an infant mortality rate amongst
manual workers in Britain of 152 per thousand, whilst even in the upper and middle
Almost every family had to face up to the death of at
least one child, and often it was more.
