Page:Labour and childhood.djvu/32

 But in Dr. Kerr's Report for 1905 he puts a question, and answers it. The question is this: "Do the weakly children get killed off in infancy? and do only the strong muddle through? Or does the thing that kills one in every five have a maiming effect on those that are left?"

The above table gives the number of infant deaths per thousand in the years from 1892 to 1896 in different parts of London. The physique curve, or line showing the average health of the school-going children was taken, and above it the infant death-rate for the parish where the school was situated was charted. It was found that they tallied in a very remarkable way. The children's health varied according to the year in which they were born. Thus the surviving children of 1892 (the year least fatal to infants) were the strongest and tallest for their