Hello folks, I once attended a talk by a gastroenterologist who had done an historical study on what he called "Summer diaorrhoea", in which he explained that one of the largest causes of infant mortality in the 19th century was caused by fly-borne disease. Because of widespread distribution of horse and other animal manure in the streets, flies were a considerable problem in the summer months, and infants were particularly vulnerable. I wonder if another look at the 244 infants buried at St Peter's Crooks River graveyard might reveal that a high proportion died in the summer months? It was paradoxically the replacement of horse-power with motor vehicles that saved many childrens' lives. I think a look in the annual Statistician's Year Book would be rewarding for causes of death. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has been gathering stats since 1901, and before that state Statisticians were busy doing the same thing. Best wishes, Lenore The Empire Called and I Answered: the Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington the website The Empire Called blog > Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2012 23:46:53 +1000 > From: Laurel Horton <lrhorton@optusnet.com.au> > Subject: [ANS] Infant Death Statistics. > > St. Peter's Cooks River graveyard, attached to the Anglican church of > the same name covers the period 1839-1896, and has in total 2,543 > burials. All classes of people are buried in the graveyard, from > merchants to paupers and lunatics, and doubtless some who are Roman > Catholic. > 244 are dead before they reach three months old. 777 don't reach the > age of one year. That is just over 30 % of the total burials. If we > take the figure for those not reaching the age of five, the figure is > 1011, and the percentage is over 39%. In our publication on the > graveyard at St. Peter's, "Grave Reflections," we suggest measles, > scarlet fever and typhoid fever are significant factors, especially > in densely populated industrial suburbs, and when averaged over a > long period, mortality in Sydney suburbs was usually 50% higher than > in the same age groups in Australian rural areas. > Bob and Laurel Horton St. Peters Cook's River History Group.