Patricia Thornton

Family contexts of fertility and infant survival in nineteenth-century Montreal.

In the cohort of 4000 infants born in Montreal in 1859, the cultural context showed a powerful influence on infant mortality: more French Canadian infants died in their first year than Protestant or Irish Catholic. Socio-economic status shows no effect on infant mortality, although in each cultural community the wealthy had a higher birth rate than the poor. A higher birth rate to French Canadian mothers can be attributed entirely to the larger number of deaths followed by prompt “replacement.” Among mothers whose infants survived twelve months, all three communities show the same median birth intervals, indicative of a high fertility, apparently regulated by breastfeeding. The summer concentration of infant deaths nevertheless points to diarrheal diseases and differences of infant feeding.

Mortality in late nineteenth-century Montreal: Geographic pathways of contagion

In the City of Montreal, 1881, the presence of three cultural communities with different profiles of economic status makes it possible to observe the way social settings affected survival over a lifetime. Regression models show culturally determined maternal factors dominant for infants, and persistent throughout childhood. For post-neonates, children aged 1–4, and adults aged 15–59 household poverty has a comparable effect. Among adults, a gender penalty differs among the three communities. Models are improved when differentiated by cause of death. Locating households using a GIS reveals high levels of residential segregation by ethnicity and income, spatial correlation of environmental hazards, and constraints on exit from zones of risk, which together produce neighbourhood effects as large as household effects. Attention to groups excluded (foundlings and inmates of institutions) confirms that models limited to full household-level information significantly underestimate the impacts of poverty and exclusion.