Doubtless, culta placent and turgid medical writing displeases, but even the most persistent adulator of elegance admires an exhaustive listing of vital information. Ingenii calore tutior essem, I plunged into the maze of charts and figures. This study is an intensive survey and analysis of the outcome of births in the year 1958, utilizing a control of one week and a study of neonatal (0-28 days) deaths limited to March, April, and May of that year. The findings are further limited to singleton births and exclude Northern Ireland from the findings.
A total of 25,000 carefully documented questionnaires were reviewed, rich in details on matters of gestation, history, maternal health, labor, and questions aimed to clarify the environmental and social background of the family. Autopsies, when performed, were reviewed painstakingly by a large panel of well-known neonatal pathologists. The combined experience and productivity of these men and women from one