ORIGIN AND INFANT MORTALITY 219

Rates for specified origins are arranged in order of size in Table 136. There is considerable
 variation shown in that table. Among the Indians 21 out of every one hundred
infants born in 1925 died before reaching the age of twelve months, while among the
[celandic people, for example, the rate was between 3 and 4 p.c. Thus nearly six times
as large a proportion of infants born to Indian fathers died in the first year of life as in
the case of those of Icelandic parentage. So great a difference is exceedingly significant.
The numerically most important Slavic stocks in Canada appear in the top half of the
table, as do the Latin and Greek peoples. The Germanic, Scandinavian and British stocks
are grouped in the lower half,
The difference between groups of peoples is shown more clearly in Table 137, which
arranges them according to geographical and linguistic classes. There is considerable variation
 within each of the geographical groups, suggesting that geographical origin is not a
determining factor in the matter of mortality rate. The North Western European group,
however, shows lower limits, both at the top and the bottom, than does the South, Eastern
and Central European group, and the average stock in the former case shows an infant
mortality of 6.39 p.c. and in the latter case 10.32 pe. It is rather surprising to find such
wide variation in rates for the Asiatic stocks. The average is unduly high, owing to the
influence of the mortality rates for the Hindoos and the Syrians, whose numbers are very
small. It is interesting to note that the infant mortality for both the Japanese and Chinese
is below the median rate for either the Latin and Greek or Slavie peoples. Indeed the rate
of 4.58 p.c. for the Chinese is one of the lowest in Canada, a lower figure being shown only
in three cases, namely, the Welsh, Jews and Icelanders. The low rate among the Chinese, however
 may be due to incomplete registration of deaths among a small and unassimilated group.
Among the linguistic groups the rates for the Scandinavians appear on the whole to
oe the lowest. The average rate for the English speaking stocks is slightly higher than
that for the Scandinavians. The rate of 4.46 for the Welsh is a little greater than the
rate of 3.39 for the Icelandic, the lowest in the Scandinavian group; and the rate for the
English, the highest of the English speaking stocks, is slightly higher than that for the
Norwegians, the highest among the Scandinavian stocks. With both lower and upper limits
aigher than the lower and upper limits of the Scandinavian group and with the average
somewhat greater, it is safe to say that the English speaking stocks show a higher infant
mortality rate than the Scandinavian peoples. Both groups, however. show comparatively
low rates. The difference is not great.
The rate for the average Germanic stock is higher than that for the average English
speaking or Scandinavian people, although the rate for the Dutch (6.00 pe) is lower
than for any except the Welsh in the former group. Among the English, Scandinavian, and
Germanic peoples, the Belgians, with an infant mortality rate of 9.17 p.c., are considerably
che highest, and the Icelanders, with a rate of 3.39 p.c., are by far the lowest. The other
aine stocks are scattered more or less promiscuously between these upper and lower limits.
Those of Latin and Greek origin show much higher mortality rates; their average is
she highest of any group. The Austrians have the highest rate among the Slavs, and the
Poles, Ukrainians and Russians follow in the order named. These four origins include the
aumerically most important Slavic peoples immigrating to Canada. The rate for the
Russians, the lowest of the four, is equal to that of the Belgians, which, with the exception
of the French, was the highest of the North Western Europeans. On the other hand, some
of the Slavs show remarkably low rates. The Czechs, the Bulgarians and Serbo-Croatians
ll have infant mortality rates below those of the Irish or the Swedes, but while this is to
she credit of those eastern peoples, it is not of such wvital significance to Canada as the
aigher rates for the Austrians, Poles, Ukrainians and Russians, whose numbers are so large.
The order of infant mortality rates for various origing in Canada appears somewhat
similar to that obtained by arranging the origins in order of percentages illiterate. In
order to determine whether any significant relationship between infant mortality and illiteracy
 existed, the two series were correlated, but the interference of one or two extreme
cases running directly contrary to expectations, e.g. the Chinese, rendered the results
anreliable. When these cases are eliminated a moderate coefficient appears and consequently
 the conclusion is tentatively advanced that some connection does exist between
nfant mortality and illiteracy.