As I first read the letters of Zélie Martin, I was grateful for modern advances in medical science.
And then I realised that technological progress alone does not liberate man; it makes him more risk-averse when it comes to death and dying.
I don’t know what the rate of infant mortality was in 19th-century France, but it sounds pretty high. Zélie lost four children and her brother lost at least one child. Her letters are full of the accounts of sudden and youthful deaths in their circle. A helpful footnote from the translator says that the greatest cause of infant mortality was enteritis (inflammation of the intestine).
