The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-02-20
VIOLENT DEATHS.
Proportions i'm Great Britain and til
Country.

Proportions In Great Britain and this
Country.
We read with alarm that in India
between 10000 and 10000 persons
annually fall victims to the bites of
venomous reptiles or the depredations
of man-eating tigers, or other ferocious
beasts. The establishment which these
facts create appears to indicate an
impression that it wonld be i'm
possible to point to anything analo-
gous or parallel in more civilized lands.
Yet during the census year of 1871, in
England and Wales 16, 1913 persons met
death by violence, while during the
census year of 1870 the number of such
deaths in this country was II, SIT.
The risk of such details for each in
dividual in England and Wales may al
so be examined. The population be-
ing %, 10000, 1898 of the number
having died of violence in the year 1871,
it follows that out of every ten thou
sand persons living from seven to eight
met their deaths from this class of
causes. And as the proportions have
not varied materially of late years, this
may be taken as representing the aver
age chance persons in that country
stand of coming by such deaths. In
India, with its population of 230, 000,-
900, the chance is that only one person
out of every 10000 living should die of
serpent bite, or from injuries inflicted
by wild animals so that an English
man runs from seven to eight times q
greater risk of a violent death than an
East Indian does from the particular
causes just mentioned.
The chances of like fatality in this
country is something in the ratio of H.
900 to 10000, 600 or thereabouts, which
would make rate of to in each TO-
600, a circumstance which would tend
to show that, in proportion as popula-
ton is concentrated, violent deaths in
crease. The English returns show a
terrible uniformity in the class of deaths
in question. Thus in 1870 the total
number was 1858; in 1869 it was &c.
497; it was 1G,968 in 1868; 1866
in 1867; 26,915 in 1866; 1874 in
1866, and 17,018 in 1864. Taking the
twenty years from 1850 to 1869, it APP
pears that out of every million Eng
lish people living during that period,
764 have every year come to an untime
ly end from one or other form of VII
lence.
The average was highest in the year
1866, when the proportion was 1876 out
of every million. 1t was lowest in
1857, when the proportion per million
living fell to 725. Old age, the only
cause of death that can be considered
the natural one, is less than twice as ia
tai as violence.
Out of a million deaths among Eng
lishmen, decay of nature after a full
spent life accounts for no more than
Sc, 527, as against 80, 465 referable to
violent causes. Only 1, 407 out of every
million Englishmen die in the course
of year from old age, while within
the same period the terrible certainty
of a violent death awaits 764 of the mil
lion. On the other hand deaths from
age are scarce in our census re! urns.
In the census year 1871. they aggrega-
ted 3, 449. From these figures, it would
appear between seventeen and eighteen
persons now in health will die by vio-
lence during the present year in this
land. In 1870, there was 1,051 sui
eide "A small fractional proportion on
ly of these deaths. The fatal causes
by violence average in this country
about 4S per day, or two an hour. If
the years slain, lying in their collins,
were laid lengthwise along the road,
they would stretch, in one unbroken
line, distance of some sixteen miles.