Back to home page1994
94.84.01 - French - Catherine ROLLET, Université de Versailles St. Quentin-en-Yvelines, 3, rue de la Division Leclerc, 78280 Guyancourt (France)
Infant Mortality in the Past (La mortalité des enfants dans le passé : au-delà des apparences) (p. 7-22)
The purpose of the article is to give a short synthesis of the communications gathered in this volume dedicated to the topic of child mortality. It starts with the evocation of some key issues about sources and methods: the study of mortality before 5 years appears more difficult than expected. The trend of the decrease, more and more clear, though unlinear, suggests that climate, beyond environnmental and socioeconomic factors, may have been an underestimated factor so far. The analysis of causes refers to the concept of synergy, several factors acting simultaneously to reinforce the previous trends, either of decrease or increase of death risks. (HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, INFANT MORTALITY, MORTALITY TRENDS, MORTALITY DETERMINANTS)
94.84.02 - French - Tommy BENGTSSON and Christer LUNDH, Department of Economic History, University of Lund, P.O. Box 7083, 22007 Lund (Sweden)
Infant and Child Mortality in the Nordic Countries before 1900 (La mortalité infantile et post-infantile dans les pays nordiques avant 1900) (p. 21-43)
The mortality decline in the Nordic countries started at the end of the 18th century with a decrease in infant and child mortality. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that adult mortality started to fall. Recent research shows that improvement supply, medical care, sanitation and nursing did not take place until of the 19th century, i.e. considerably later than the start of the infant and child mortality decline. One possible explanation to the initial decline is that a lence of pathogens did occur at the end of the 18th century, i.e. that the factors beyond human control. A general agreement followed during the 19th century had multi-factoral causes. The importance of different factors is, however, still debated. To proceed with this debate there is an obvious need to construct more data series of age-specific mortality at macro level and to make full use of family reconstitution data. The use of advanced statistical methods, such as life event analysis, will also be of crucial importance. Equally important is the quality of the data. Since the Nordic data are said to be very good, which they generally are, too little attention has been paid to the examination of its quality. One such problem is the under-reporting of infant deaths in the church books. It is vital to research on infant and child mortality, as well as on fertility, that those periods and parishes with good data are identified. (SCANDINAVIA, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, MORTALITY DECLINE, MORTALITY DETERMINANTS)
94.84.03 - French - Lorenzo DEL PLANTA, Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche, Universita degli Studi di Bologna, Via Belle Arti 41, 40126 Bologna (Italy)
Infant and Child Mortality in Italy from 18th to 20th Centuries (Mortalité infantile et post-infantile en Italie du XVIIIe au XXe siècle : tendances à long terme et différences régionales) (p. 45-60)
From the beginning of national unification (1861) onwards, the process of the decline in infant mortality has been well-known and several explanatory hypotheses have been offered about the time differences in the decline on different territories. Using a still fragmentary and heterogeneous documentary data basis, this article has attemped to outline the evolution of the mortality of children as from the 18th century, stressing the permanence of territorial particularities in the long run. Before the beginning of the irreversible decline (as from the second half of the 19th century), the determining factors of the territorial differences seem to depend more on socio-cultural factors and on the surrounding atmosphere than on the standards of living of the populations. (ITALY, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, INFANT MORTALITY, MORTALITY DECLINE, REGIONAL DEMOGRAPHY)
94.84.04 - French - Josep BERNABEU-MESTRE, Historia de la Ciència, Département du Salut Publica, Campus de Sant Joan, Ap. de Correus 374, 03080 Alacant (Spain)
Health Problems and Causes of Death of Children in Spain, 1900-1935 (Problèmes de santé et causes de décès infantiles en Espagne (1900-1935)) (p. 61-77)
Referring to risk model used in epidemiology, the research proposed the use of a holistic framework for the understanding and explain the relations that existed between health levels and causes of death in Spanish children between 1900 and 1935. In the first place, to analyse the evolution of some of the main causes of infant deaths. Secondly, will attempt to explain some of the main trends in infant mortality through the analysis of certain disease frameworks, including both primary or etiological elements and together with socioeconomic and cultural context. In the opinion of Spanish hygienists and paediatricians of the period, these disease frameworks (feeding practices, popular attitudes to children's health, as in the case of teething, etc.) were responsible for the high levels of infant morbidity and mortality. (SPAIN, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, INFANT MORTALITY, CAUSES OF DEATH)
94.84.05 - French - Alfred PERRENOUD, Université de Genève, Faculté des Sciences Economiques et Sociales, Département d'histoire économique, 102, bd Carl-Vogt, CH-1211 Genève 4 (Switzerland)
Child Mortality in French-speaking Europe (La mortalité des enfants en Europe francophone : état de la question) (p. 79-96)
The interest of a comparative approach at a supranational level is to identify and to underscore the trends that sometimes overcome regional characteristics. Therefore among the great variety of parameters likely to influence mortality, the factors acting on level and the factors acting on trends must be strictly distinguished. What is more striking where comparisons are possible, is the conformity of trends and the fact that evolution is not continuous but moves forward in stages. This is the reason why socio-economic explanations must be excluded. A whole part of Western Europe knew an important infant mortality decline at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and probably also of the 18th century. It was such a rapid, simultenous extensive decline that the interference of very general factors must be acknowledged. Then the question is raised of the effect that a modification in the pathological balance can produce on the chances of infants to survive. The hypothesis considered here is a minor incidence of infectious diseases connected to changing bio-meteorological conditions (a drop in the temperature gap between winter ans summer) which would have acted as a transforming mass along with cumulative effects because of the interactive synergy between ill-nourishment and infections. The evolution in the 19th century and the contrasted profiles or mortality according to age confirm the hypothesis of a modifition in the nosological context unrelated to the economic conditions. (EUROPE, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, INFANT MORRTALITY, MORTALITY TRENDS, MORTALITY DETERMINANTS)
94.84.06 - French - Pier Paolo VIAZZO, Istituto degli Innocenti di Firenze, Piazza SS. Annunziata 12, 50122 Firenze (Italy)
Model of Alphine Regions on Infant Mortality (Les modèles alpins de mortalité infantile) (p. 97-117)
The evidence presented in this article shows that from the mid-18th century up to the early 20th century babies and young children tended to have a more favourable mortality experience in the upland regions of the Alpine crescent than in the adjacent hilly and flat areas. Although several explanations have been advanced, most scholars are inclined to believe that the lower levels of infant mortality displayed by the Alpine area were primarily accounted for by climatic and other environmental factors, which made infants less vulnerable to bronchial and pulmonary disease and lessened the risk of gastro-intestinal disorders. The available evidence also shows, however, that broad differences can be detected across major regional subdivisions, infant mortality rates being markedly higher in the Austrian Alps than in the rest of the Alpine area. Such differences apppear to be mainly related to regional variations in infant feeding habits. Some specific features of Alpine seasonal patterns of infant mortality are also discussed. This article ends up with a tentative outline of long-term trends in Alpine infant mortality from the poorly recorded period before 1750 up to the 1950s. (HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, INFANT MORTALITY, DIFFERENTIAL MORTALITY, GEOGRAPHY)
94.84.07 - French - Robert WOODS, Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, Roxby Building, P.O. Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX (U.K.)
Infant Mortality in the United Kingdom: A Histocial Knowledge Assessment (La mortalité infantile en Grande Bretagne : un bilan des connaissances historiques) (p. 119-134)
This paper provides a concise review of what is known about long-term trends in infant mortality rates in Britain since the middle of the 16th century. it considers, first, various estimates of infant mortality based on E.A. Wrigley and R.S. Schofield's estimates of life expectancy at birth for England, 1541-1871, which it compares with equivalent series for groups of parishes and the families of the British peerage. Secondly, it explores the variations between infant mortality rates that were likeky in different forms of environment, especially the urban and the rural. Thirdly, the paper suggests that the conditions affecting an individual's mortality in infancy may also have had a bearing on that same individual's life chance in adulthood. It considers this possibility further using Thomas Hollingsworth's data for the British peerage. Fourtly, the paper attempts to provide some estimates of the social class variations in infant mortality in England and Wales in comparison with those in the USA at the end of the 19th and early years of the 20th century. Lastly, some of these regularities are considered from an epidemiological perspective by examining cause of death patterns among children. (UNITED KINGDOM, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, INFANT MORTALITY, DIFFERENTIAL MORTALITY)
94.84.08 - French - Jean Pierre BARDET, Corinne MARTIN-DUFOUR and Jacques MARTIN, Paris-Sorbonne, Centre Roland Mousnier, URA 100 du CNRS, 1 rue Victor Cousin, 75230 Paris Cedex 05 (France)
Mortality of Abandoned Children (La mort des enfants trouvés : un drame en deux actes) (p. 135-150)
Around 1750 society grows aware of the high mortality of abandoned infants: enlighhtened physicians and administrators attempt to remedy this disaster and put the blame on the country wet nurses who took in the foundings. A large number of contemporary historians have incritically contented themselves with repeating these reproaches. This article constitutes an attempt to rehabilitate country wet nurses. According to the authors, the infants were victims of the circumstances of being abandoned. An analysis based on a list of names does show that the most obvious causes for the high mortality rate of the foundings were the close incidents surrounding the fact of being abandoned whereas it can rarely be explained by the living conditions at a wet nurses. In the background, an original rural society emerges in a poor country taking in infants constitutes a real business. This study represents but one stage at the core of a developing research. (HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, INFANT MORTALITY, ABANDONED CHILDREN, MORTALITY DETERMINANTS)
94.84.09 - French - Alain BIDEAU, Michel FLOQUET, Centre Pierre Léon, URA CNRS 223, Maison Rhône Alpes des Sciences de l'Homme, Lyon (France), and Guy BRUNET, Département de Démographie, Université Lumière, Lyon (France)
Differential Mortality of Native Children and Children in the Care of a Nurse. Example from Druillat, Ain, in the 18th Century (Mortalité différentielle des enfants indigènes et des enfants en nourrice. L'exemple de Druillat (Ain) au XVIIIe siècle) (p. 151-168)
Druillat, a parish in Bresse, welcomed a lot of abandoned infants who had been found a foster home by Lyons Hôtel-Dieu (hospital) during the second half of the 18th century. After specifying the annual volume of this incoming-flow, the arrival of each infant at its foster home is considered. The notion of foster home covers in fact diversified family situations as far as the number of native children and infants are concerned. Through the comparison of deaths recorded locally and the HÖtel-Dieu register keeping lists of the infants' placements, the mortality of foster infants can be precised and compared to that of natives. The age at which they were put out to nurses and the foster family standards of living, play a fundamental role as far as the infant mortality risks are concerned. (FRANCE, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, INFANT MORTALITY, WET NURSES, DIFFERENTIAL MORTALITY)
94.84.10 - French - Marco BRESCHI and Massimo LIVI-BACCi, Dipartimento Statistico, Viale Morgagni 59, 50134 Firenze (Italy)
The Month of Birth as Survival Factor (Le mois de naissance comme facteur de survie des enfants) (p. 167-185)
Season of birth may influence considerably children's survival. This study extends the analysis that the authors have already carried out on the Italian regions and Savoy to other countries: Russia, Low Countries, Belgium and Switzerland. The data refer to the second half of the 19th century. It is in Italy that differential mortality according to season of birth is larger (maximum differential in the Venetia region), followed by Russia and Switzerland. Climate's influence (cold in winter and heat in the summer) combine its effects with social customs typical of each country, age and weaning, other customs concerning children's survival. These different combinations determine some unexpected results in the various countries. In the final part of the paper, data derived from family reconstitution of two Tuscan villages (1790-1916) are analysed in order to build a simple model measuring the net impact of climate on mortality during the first two years of life. (HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, INFANT MORTALITY, SEASONAL FLUCTUATIONS, CLIMATE)
94.84.11 - French - Jacques DUPAQUIER, Société de démographie historique, EHESS, 54 bd Raspail, 75006 Paris (France)
A History of Prematurity (Pour une histoire de la prématurité) (p. 187-202)
The infant's mortality calendar regarding populations in the past, testifies of an unusual concentration in the few days following births. A similar phenomenon can be observed nowadays as far as premature baby is confronted with and particularly hypothermia, the author puts forward the hypothesis that the very high neo-natal mortality as well as the rate of stillbirths observed until the end of the 19th century, would be first and foremost a consequence of early delivery caused by heavy domestic work. Various clues, among which the seasonal curve of neomortality, seem to confirm this hypothesis. (HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, NEONATAL MORTALITY, LATE FOETAL MORTALITY, PREMATURITY)
94.84.12 - French - Agnès FINE, Université de Toulouse-Le-Mirail, 5, allée Antonio Machado, 31058 Toulouse Cedex (France)
The Baby and Knowledge (Le nourrisson à la croisée des savoirs) (p. 201-214)
The effects of baby's feeding on their mortality is known. It is thus interesting to know the cultural context in which bottle-feeding was adopted. In the 1930s, many women in the Eastern Pyrenees abandonned breast-feeding on the advice of their doctor because, they said, they had bad milk that "poisonned" their baby. This idea, widely spread in France at the time, took place within a set of traditional images of maternal milk and its spoiling which referred to ancient and complex beliefs concerning feminine physiology and blood disorders. These ideas were shared by women as well as by doctors until a relatively recent date. (FRANCE, HISTORY, INFANT FEEDING, BOTTLE FEEDING)
94.84.13 - French - Yves HORRENT, Michel ORIS, Paul SERVAIS, Karel VELLE
The Population of Important Belgium University Hospitals from the 19th to the 20th Centuries (La populations des grands hôpitaux universitaires belges du début du XIXe à la fin du XXe siècle) (p. 217-236)
This paper is the synthesis of researches concerning the university hospitals of Gand, Liège and Louvain in Belgium. First, you will find an abstract of the analysis and main results. The interpretation topics are then approached with three different points of view: the sources, being hospital or medical records, their qualities and their limits; the structure of the institutions and their consequences on the social structure of the patients; the impact of the demographic transition. The hospital, which was one reserved to poor adults, has progressively been authorized to "non-profitables", children first, then old people, so that the aged of patients largely exceeds than the population itself. (BELGIUM, HISTORY, HOSPITAL)
94.84.14 - French - Scarlett BEAUVALET, Université de Paris IV, Sorbonne, 1, rue Victor Cousin, 75220 Paris cedex 05 (France)
Maternal Mortality at Port-Royal, 1815-1826 (Perdre la vie en la donnant : la mortalité maternelle à Port-Royal, 1815-1826) (p. 237-260)
In this paper, we have studied the "Hospice de la Maternité ", created in 1795 to replace the "Office des accouchées" of the Paris "Hôtel-Dieu". Our objectives were, first to conduct a demographic study of the pregnant women coming to the maternity and second, to evaluate the patterns of maternal mortality. The data are constituted of individual medical reports between 1815 and 1826. 4.086 women issued from a quest at the letter B have been observed. Because of the relative low number of deaths in this population (192), we decided to investigate four other years (1817, 1818, 1819 and 1811), where the deaths were exhaustively recorded. Unweded mothers represented 80,4% of the population and their mean age was 25, whereas married women were more than 30 years old. Nearly all these women came from the working class, especially three sectors, sewing (35,4%), servants (31,8%) and workers (20%). More than three quarter dwelled in Paris; among them, less than 20% were born in the city. Mortinatality was very high, it reached 6%. It was more prominent for unweded women (81,7 %) than for married mothers (58,3%). Maternal mortality was high, 47 per 1000, but we noted important fluctuations amongst years and seasons. The demographic analysis of the population showed that the Maternity appears as a transition structure between the ancient "hospices" and the modern hospital. The poor economic and physiological status of women explained that, despite of noticeable improvement in cares, mortality rate will remain high during all the century. (FRANCE, HISTORY, MATERNAL MORTALITY)
94.84.15 - French - Rose DUROUX, Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont II, 34, rue Carnot, 63006 Clermont-Ferrand Cedex 1 (France)
Traveller and Hospital. From Massif Central to the "Hôpital de Saint Louis des Français" in Madrid, 1617-1935 (Le voyageur et l'hôpital. Du Massif central à l'hôpital Saint-Louis-des-Français de Madrid, 1617-1935) (p. 261-176)
The aim of this article is to bring out the interest offered by hospital records for the study of a migratory movement. The example chosen is a medium-distance migration, concerning people leaving the Massif central for Spain. The subject of our observation is the "Hopital de Saint Louis des Français" in Madrid. It was a small establishment which exiguity is compensated - for the observer - by its longevity (1617-1935). This means thousands of entries and, for the historian, a stock of archives, although deficient at that times, gave a new light on a migratory movement as long-lived as the hospital itself. Over three centuries, we can trace enduring regional and occupational trends as well as departures from those trends, whose statistics can be made. Thus, the standard Auvergnat who never fails to give his patronage to the "Hôpital de Saint Louis des Français" - more than one third of its inmates until the 19th century - that itinerant provider of small services, can be seen to settle gradually in Madrid, confining himself to the bakery trade. If that occupational evolution can be easily discerned, a more subtle analysis makes it possible to detect the departures from the trends in the parishes from which they emigrated, and to make comparisons with other French migrants. Moreover, better than any other document, the Infirmary Register throws light on the often hidden side of emigration: disease, poverty and failure. (FRANCE, SPAIN, HISTORY, MIGRATION FLOW)
94.84.16 - French - Marie-Claude DINET-LECOMTE, Université de Picardie, rue Salomon Mahlangu, 80025 Amiens Cedex (France)
Hospital Nuns at the Service of Poor Sick Persons in the 17th and the 18th Centuries (Les soeurs hospitalières au service des pauvres malades aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles) (p. 277-292)
Unknown, the hospital nuns deserve to be studied. Their call (or vocation), tested by the selection during noviciate, sets them into hospital environment in the 17th and 18th centuries and is rarely refuted. Whatever their own religious families, they represent the majority of nurses. In spite of some conflicts, their increasing success in the service of hospitals depends on cheap, movable, flexible, docile and polyvalent commmunities. (HISTORY, PARAMEDICAL PERSONNEL, RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS)
94.84.17 - French - Annie SAUNIER, Institut d'Histoire, Université de Paris-IV, 1, rue Victor Cousin, 75230 Paris Cedex 05 (France)
Analysis of Specific Adaptation Development on Child Hospitalization during the 15th and 16th Centuries (De l'enfant à l'hôpital, à l'hôpital pour enfants. Tentative d'analyse de l'élaboration d'une adaptation spécifique de l'hospitalisation pour l'enfant au tournant des XVe et XVIe siècles) (p. 293-302)
Through several concrete exemples coming from the accounts of old hospitals and from the founding deels of the first institutions specially denoted to children, we would try to define the elements of a spiritual and mental evolution in the reflector on destitute sick children, and its being materialized by the foundation of the very first "hospitals" specialized in welcoming them. (HISTORY, HOSPITAL, VALUE OF CHILDREN, MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH)
94.84.18 - French - Isabelle von BUELTZINGSLOEWEN, Centre Pierre Léon, Université de Lyon II, 14, avenue Berthelot, 69363 Lyon Cedex 07 (France)
Sociology of Hospitalized Populations: Resorting to Hospital in Germany during the First Half of the 19th Century (Pour une sociologie des populations hospitalisées : le recours à l'hôpital dans l'Allemagne de la première moitié du XIXe siècle) (p. 303-316)
Based on a sociological analysis of the populations which were hospitalized in the German academic hospitals during the first half of the 19th century, the purpose of this article is to put into perspective the equivalence which has often been established between penury and hospitalization. During this period the access to hospitals had not yet spread to all social classes; but numerous signs (such as the rate of activity, the age or the sex of the patients, their geographical origin, the duration of their stay and above all the development of the hospital insurances) shows that the German hospital was not the only refuge of indigent and marginal people but an answer to a demand coming from the popular classes as a whole. (GERMANY, HISTORY, HOSPITAL, SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS)
94.84.19 - English - José C. CURTO, Center for Developing Areas Studies, McGill University, 3715, rue Peel, Montréal, Québec H3A 1X1 (Canada)
Sources for the Pre-1900 Population History of Sub-Sahara Africa: The Case of Angola, 1773-1845 (p. 319-338)
This article deals with the largest collection of primary sources yet located documenting the population history of any area in sub-Saharan Africa before 1900: 350 censuses produced between 1773 and 1845 in the Portuguese colony of Angola. It examines the administrative background of these censuses, describes the types of demographic data contained therein, and evaluates the problems raised by this corpus of data. Two major conclusions are drawn. First, although most demographers and historians have assumed that traditional quantitative sources on the population past of sub-Saharan Africa are not available prior to the turn of the 19th century, a steadily growing amount of this type of documentation does in fact exit for coastal areas under European control. Second, in the specific of Angola, with the extant demographic data being closer to those found in more modern censuses, its population history can be effectively reconstructed with a fair degree of precision and detail. (ANGOLA, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, POPULATION CENSUSES)
94.84.20 - French - Raymond GERVAIS, Centre d'études sur les régions en développement, Université McGill, 3715, rue Peel, Montréal, Québec H3A 1X1 (Canada)
Censuses in the French West Africa: Example from the Colonial Upper Volta (Recensement en AOF : genèse et signification des exemples de la Haute-Volta coloniale) (p. 339-353)
The mobilisation of the population, and therefore, of the labor force was central to the ideology and the working of the colonial administration. The history of the emergence of a "demographic accountancy" in the administrative experience in French West Africa, with examples from Upper Volta, illustrates the will of administrators of all ranks in trying to better decipher the total number of population. Unfortunately, this ambition was not without its contradictions. Opposite to this ambition it is found some omissions that rendered it inoperative: lack of personnels, lack of proper training for European and African civil servants, lack of funds, lack of institutions (local statistical offices), etc. A general evaluation is presented. The administration appears with full contradictions, open, obviously to the advantages of complete population enumerations but unable in generating them in a methodologically satisfying manner. This concern was challenged by the rise of limits of former modes of population exploitation. (BURKINA FASO, HISTORY, POPULATION CENSUSES, COLONIAL COUNTRIES)
94.84.21 - French - Robert A. HORVATH
Population Dynamics, Economy and Space in Budapest, from Unification to the 1980s (La dynamique démographique, économique et spatiale de Budapest, de l'unification aux années 1980) (p. 357-361)
Since the creation of Budapest in 1873 by the unification of Buda, Pest and Obuda, the population of the Hungarian capital has grown from 300,000 to 1,165,000 inhabitants. With this population growth we found an industrialisation intensified by the Austrian-Hungarian partition in 1920. After the Second World War, the phenomenon develops through the imposed industrialisation of the communist regime and the collectivisation of agriculture which increases the drift from the land. In 1950 villages are absorbed to form the Great Budapest where living conditions become more difficult because of the government policy supporting a rising birth rate. As from 1958 government have to restrict the facilities settling for population and industries. However during the 60s, the population growth rhythm is maintained to diminish slightly in the 70s. In 1980, there are 2,059,000 inhabitants in the Great Budapest, i.e. more than 20% of the country's 10,700,000 inhabitants. Together with the sphere of attraction all around the capital, it builds up a total of 3,500,000 inhabitants. This urban concentration has important consequences upon the quality of life. (HUNGARY, HISTORY, CAPITAL CITY, POPULATION DYNAMICS)
Back to home page