Early Death: Mortality among Young Children in New York, Chicago, and New Orleans

2004/01/01 by Gretchen A. Condran, Harold R. Lentzner · 23 citations
Arts and Humanities · Medicine · #Demography #Environmental health #Geography #Gerontology #History #Infant mortality #Medical History and Innovations #Medicine #Population #Sanitation #Socioeconomics #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1162/002219504771997881

published in The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 34(3), 315-354 (The MIT Press)

openalex publication_date 2004/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

The high mortality of nineteenth-century cities included excess summer mortality among infants and young children. Data from New York City, New Or-leans, and Chicago from 1870 to 1917 and earlier data from New York City permit an examination of this high summer mortality and its decline during the early twentieth century in relation to changes in infant feeding practices, sanitation projects to improve water supplies and methods of waste disposal, and efforts to improve the quality of milk.

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