Abstract
The article explores the characteristics of infant mortality in Santiago during a historical period in which the demographic indicators reached very high figures turning the phenomenon into a medical and political issue. After commenting on historiographic data, it demonstrates the behavior of the infant population quantitatively, taking into account primary sources – from medicine, the press and civil records – and bibliography. It also exposes the motives employed by the elite to justify the children’s deaths: materially, morally and culturally. The conclusion addresses the promulgation of the defenseless child law, the beginnings of knowledge on child health and the inauguration of the Child Hospital.
infant mortality; Santiago de Chile; medicine; politics; press
Fuente: elaboración de los autores basada en los cuadros mensuales publicados en la prensa de la época (principalmente El Ferrocarril) con datos de las parroquias (hasta 1883) y del Registro Civil (desde 1884).