No difference without a cause: Infant mortality rates as a world view generator

Scandinavian Journal of History

Volumn 20, Issue 2, 1995, Pages 75-96

  Løkke, Anne ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN   (Denmark)

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 1842787044     PISSN: 03468755     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03468759508579296     Document Type: Article

References (76)

1. Statistiske Oplysninger om Staden Kjøbenhave, first fascicle 1876; compiled by the 22-year-old Marcus Rubin on a trial grant for statistical work. See Lorenz Rerup (ed.), Marcus Rubins brevveksling 1370-1922 (1963), vol. I, p. 27
2. Ugeskrift for Lœger 23 (1877), p. 105
3. Jane Lewis, The Politics of Motherhood: Child and Maternal Welfare in England, 1900-1939 (London, 1980)
4. Deborah Dwork, War is Good for Babies and Other Young Children: A History of the Infant and Child Welfare Movement in England 1898-1918 (London, 1987)
5. Barbara Gutman Rosenkrantz, The Health of Women and Children (New York, 1987)
6. Roger Cooter (ed.), In the Name of the Child: Health and Welfare, 1880-1940 (London, 1992), Ann F. La Berge, “Mothers and Infants, Nurses and Nursing: Alfred Donne and the Medicalization of Child Care in Nineteenth-Century France”, Journal of the History of Medicine (1991), pp. 20-43
7. Ann F. La Berge, “Mothers and Infants, Nurses and Nursing: Alfred Donne and the Medicalization of Child Care in Nineteenth-Century France”, Journal of the History of Medicine (1991), pp. 20-43
8. John C. Fout, German Women in the Nineteenth Century (New York & London, 1984)
9. Richard A. Meckel, Save the Babies: American Public Health Reform and the Prevention of Infant Mortality, 1850-1929 (Baltimore, 1990)
10. An important source of inspiration for my analysis of the statistical treatment of infant mortality is David Armstrong’s article, “The Invention of Infant Mortality”, Sociology of Health and Illness (1986), pp. 211-232. He argues on the basis of a fairly solid theory of social construction that it was statistics that created infant mortality. This formulation is an extreme claim that the perception of infancy and the dead in infancy is culture-bound
11. “Tabeller over Antallet af Ægtevielser, Fødsler og Dødsfald i Danmark.” See Axel Hoick, Dansk Statistiks Historie 1800-1850, sœrlig med Hensyn til den officielle Statistiks Udvikling (1901), pp. 160ff., for a survey of the legislative basis for the report schemes. Statislisk Tabelvœrk, 5th series, A 5, “Befolkningsforholdene” (1905), pp. 88ff., goes through places of publication, figures, and problems with figures; there is also a survey of the fascicle numbers of Statistisk Tabelœtrk (hereafter abbreviated as S.T.)
12. The child mortality rate usually refers to the number of deaths in the age group 0-5 years per 1000 live births, while the infant mortality rate usually refers to the number of deaths in the age group 0-1 per 1000 live births
13. Harald Westergaard & Hans C. Nybølle, Statistikkens Teori i Grundrids (Copenhagen, 1927), pp. 24-25
14. Per Wargentin, Mortalileten i Sverige, Kongl. Vetenskaps-Academiens Handlingar for År 1766, vol. XXVII; Nybølle, “Dødeligheden 1840-1940”, Nationaløkonomisk Tidsskrift 1944, p. 283
15. Anders Brändström, “De kärlekslösa mödrama”: Spädbamsdödligheten i Sverige under 1800-talet med särskild hänsyn till Nedertomeå (Umeå, 1984), pp. 10, 39ff
16. Introduction to Statistisk Tabelvœrk, oldest series, 6th fascicle, pp. XXII f. See also Kayser’s introduction, S.T. new series, vol I, p. LXXXV. Fenger specified his reflections in Bibliotek for Lœger, 3rd series, vol. 2 (1847), and in Om Dødeligkedsforholdene i Danmark, Det kgl. medicinske Selskabs Skrifter, New Series, vol. 1 (Copenhagen, 1848)
17. In the age group 1-3 years per 1000 living children at the start of this age group, and calculated in the same way for 3-5-year-olds
18. Nowadays the total generation-related infant mortality is usually calculated as a more precise expression, but calculation by calendar year can still be used in certain conditions
19. S.T., 10th fascicle. The calculations here were per 1000 deaths
20. S.T., 10th fascicle (1846), p. XXI. The writer of the introduction is not named; it is signed by “The Commission for Statistical Tables”, p. XXIX
21. Published in 1850, new series, vol. 1
22. According to Armstrong, “The Invention of Infants Mortality”, p. 212, infant mortality rates in England were first officially calculated from 1877
23. I say “as early as 1800” because stillbirths in England did not have to be registered until 1927
24. The definition of the category was an agonizing one even after the introduction of the still prevailing definition in 1896
25. S.T., 6th fascicle
26. From 1855 the categories were: death under 1 month, including stillbirths; death in the 2nd month; in the 3rd month; in the 4th, 5th, and 6th month; in the 7th-9th month; 10th-12th month; the 2nd year; 3rd year; 4th year; 5th year; age 5-10
27. Table IV B & C, pp. 32ff. From 1860 there was a further subdivision of the first month, with stillbirths being separated from live births dying in the first 24 hours, which in turn were separated from deaths in the rest of the first month. At the same time, it was made possible to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate babies dying in the first month
28. S.T., 5th series, A, 13, p. 61
29. S.T., 5th series, A 15, p. 3
30. “Befolkningsforhold” (1901), p. 136
31. S.T., 4th series, A 2, p. XIII
32. S.T., 5th series, A 2, pp. 20-21
33. also no. 6, pp. 28-29
34. Circular of 16 June 1911 from the Ministry of Ecclesiastical and Educational Affairs. The design of the cards is reproduced in S.T., 5th series, A 13, p. 61
35. Table IV B & C, pp. 32ff
36. S.T., 3rd series, vol. 12 (1868). pp. XV f
37. S.T., 5th series, A 2, pp. 20
38. S.T., 5th series, A 8 (1913), p. 32
39. Hygiene and Demography: Denmark and its Medical Organization. Presented to the 7th International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, London 1891 (1891), p. 424
40. S.T., “Befolkningsforhold” (1905)
41. See Carl Edv. Levy, Kortfattet Anviisning for unge Mødre til sundhedsmœssig Forpleining af deres spœde Børn (Copenhagen, 1845), and chancellery letter to the bishop of Iceland, 14 January 1847
42. Mürer, “Hvorledes forebygges bedst den store Dødelighed blandt spæde plejebørn”, Beretning fra den hygiejniske Congres i Kjøbenhavn 1858 (1858)
43. N. J. Bentsen, “Nogle oplysninger om dødeligheden i livets første Aar, udarbejdede med specielt hensyn til den forestaaende hygiejniske kongres”, Ugeskrifi for Lœger (1858), pp. 441-462
44. Den hygiejniske Congres, Beretning (1858)
45. Den hygiejniske Congres, Beretning (1858)
46. Den hygiejniske Congres, Beretning (1858)
47. Den hygiejniske Congres, Beretning (1858)
48. See Anne Løkke, “Præmierede Plejemødre”, Den jyske Historiker (1994)
49. Ugeskrift for Leger, 2nd series, vol. 28 (1858), pp. 441-463
50. Bentsen, Ugeikrift for Leger (1869), pp. 113-119
51. Ugeskrift for Lœger (1869), pp. 111-119
52. Hospitals-Tidende (1876), p. 444, and (1877), pp. 17-22. Ugeskrift for Leger .
53. Ugeskrift for Lœger (1877), pp. 1ff
54. The book was originally a gold-medal entry in a competition at Copenhagen University, entitled Eine Darstellung und Verwertung der in neuerer Zeit veröffentlichten Untersuchungen über die Sterblichkeit in den verschiedendenen Bevölkerungsklassen
55. Harald Westergaard, Die Lehre von der Mortalität und Morbidität (Copenhagen, 1882), p. 3
56. Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (1943), s.v. Harald Westergaard
57. Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (1943), s.v. Harald Westergaard
58. Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (1943), s.v. Harald Westergaard
59. 50 p. 225
60. 50, p. 225
61. Th. Sørensen, Bømedødeligheien i forskjellige Samfundslag i Danmark (Copenhagen, 1883)
62. Th. Sørensen, Bømedødeligheien i forskjellige Samfundslag i Danmark (Copenhagen, 1883)
63. Th. Sørensen, Bømedødeligheien i forskjellige Samfundslag i Danmark (Copenhagen, 1883)
64. Ugeskrift for Lœger (1890), p. 365
65. Westergaard, Die Lehre von der Mortalität, 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1901), p. 5
66. Westergaard, Die Lehre von der Mortalität, 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1901), p. 5
67. Westergaard, Die Lehre von der Mortalität, 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1901), p. 5
68. The Copenhagen Milk Supply Service, founded in 1878, was the first company to sell milk from veterinary-controlled herds, guaranteeing that the milk was wholesome and unadulterated. In the mid-1880s the German chemist Soxhlet had found remains of cow manure even in purified milk, so he designed an apparatus for sterilizing milk for feeding infants.
69. The 1923 edition of the pamphlet was 85,000 copies, while that of 1925 was 185,000.
70. Westergaard, Die Lehre von der Mortalität, 2nd ed., p. 687.
71. Westergaard was a devout Christian with close links to the Copenhagen Home Mission; politically he was in the centre. Rubin was a not very devout member of the Mosaic congregation and was politically radical. Sørensen was an ordinary Christian, conservative in his youth but as he grew older he became almost, but not quite, a social democrat.
72. Bjarne Kildegaard, "Unlimited Memory", Ethnologia Scandinavica (1985), an analysis of photographs of dead children, and H. C. Andersen’s "Story of a Mother".
73. Landbefolkningens dadelighed i Fyns stifi. This work shows, for example, that between a quarter and a half of the landless labourers ended their old age as paupers. This finding disturbed Rubin so much that he drew up a proposal for provision for old age, which actually had a crucial influence on the passing of a law on provision for old age in Denmark in 1892.
74. Nete Balslev Wingender, Gammel og fattig (Copenhagen, 1994).
75. Rubin, Nogle Erindringer (Copenhagen, 1914), pp. 70, 150-153.
76. Rubin & Westergaard, Ægteskabsstatistik på Grundlag af den sociale Lagieling (Copenhagen, 1890).