The age of the mother is frequently believed to be a factor in the health of the child. The highest infant mortality rate was found to be that for the group of babies with mothers over 40 years of age, and the lowest for babies of mothers from 20 to 24 years of age. TABLE 16.—DISTRIBUTION OF BIRTHS AND OF DEATHS DURING FIRST YEAR, INFANT MORTALITY RATE, AND NUMBER AND PER CENT OF STILLBIRTHS, ACCORDING TO AGE OF MOTHER. ════════════════╤════════╤════════╤═════════════════╤══════════════════ AGE OF MOTHER. │ Total │ Live │ STILLBIRTHS. │ DEATHS DURING │births. │births. │ │ FIRST YEAR. ────────────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┬────────┼────────┬───────── │ │ │ │ Per │ │ Infant │ │ │Number. │ cent. │Number. │mortality │ │ │ │ │ │ rate. ────────────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼───────── All mothers │ 1,551│ 1,463│ 88│ 5.7│ 196│ 134.0 ════════════════╪════════╪════════╪════════╪════════╪════════╪═════════ Under 20 │ 105│ 95│ 10│ 9.5│ 13│ 136.8 20 to 24 │ 476│ 454│ 22│ 4.6│ 55│ 121.1 25 to 29 │ 410│ 391│ 19│ 4.6│ 56│ 143.2 30 to 39 │ 480│ 449│ 31│ 6.5│ 61│ 135.9 40 and over │ 80│ 74│ 6│ 7.5│ 11│ 148.6 ────────────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴───────── The youngest mothers have a higher stillbirth rate than other mothers, and the oldest group of mothers has the next highest rate. In this connection not only the foregoing table is of interest, but also Table XII, based upon the entire reproduction histories of the mothers included in this study. As all the children borne by these mothers are included, the base numbers in the latter table are larger and the figures therefore somewhat more significant. BABY’S AGE AT DEATH AND CAUSE (DISEASE) OF DEATH _A baby who comes into the world has less chance to live one week than an old man of 90, and less chance to live a year than one of 80.—Bergeron._ The most dangerous time of life is early infancy; even old age seldom has greater risk. Death strikes most often in infancy. The Johnstown babies died during their first year of life at the rate of 134 per 1,000 born alive, and they paid their heaviest toll in their very earliest days. If the total of 196 deaths had been distributed evenly throughout the 12 months, 8.3 per cent. of the babies would have died each month and 25 per cent. during each quarter. But instead of that 37.8 per cent. died in the first month; 9.2 per cent. in the second, and 8.2 per cent. in the third, or over 55 per cent. in the first quarter.