The true northerner., 1875-05-14
VITAL STATISTICS.
The Death Rate I'm City and Country
Alarming Mortality Of the Great Cities.

hygienic subjects, both by Professions
men and by the public, the question o
human longevity and vitality assumes
the leading place. In spite of the populal
assumption that the average length o.
human life is steadily though slowly in
creasing, this theory is not borne ou
by the statements OF thoughtful scientific
writers. On the contrary, those who
have dealt most closely with vital statis-
tics III this country, generally hold thai
there has been decline i'll the health,
fecundity and longevity of the people.
This observation is specially and i'll q
marked degree true of our great cities.
In Philadelphia, the second city in pop
ulation in the United States, there We're
fifty deaths to every one hundred births
i'll the year 1870; while III 1870 there were
ninety deaths to every one hundred
births in the same city, being very nearly
double the proportion OF mortality eighty
years ago. From 1906 to 1920 there was
one death TO every forty-eight inhabi-
tants i'll philadelphia, while from 1861 to
1870 there was one death to every thirty
nine. The average duration OF human
life in Philadelphia near the close OF the
eighteenth century was about twenty
eight years; now it is only about 24.0
years.
The alarming mortality of American
cities is especially marked i'll the destruc-
ton of Young children. In New York,
out of 365, sos deaths reported during
half a century, 90 per cent. were OF chill
dren under five years OF age. In Chicago,
from 1S43 to 1869, 81 per cent. OF the
deaths were of infants under five years;
and in Philadelphia, 45 per cent. OF the
children born did not reach the age OF
five years. In the latter city, the statistics
of forty years ago showed only 80 per
cent. of the total mortality from children
under five years of age, thus showing
great increase of early deaths.
In Massachusetts,, the State Board OF
Health reports that the ratio of deaths
under one year of age, to the births, was
1911 per cent. i'll Boston, but only l2.39
per cent. in the rural portions OF the
State. The mortality OF great cities is
found to be, both in this country and IN
Europe, more than twice as great as that
of the rural districts; indeed, it is fully
two and half times rs great, for the
cities are counted with the country III
those comparisons, thus reducing the
difference in their favor; and moreover,
the mean average age at death i'll cities is
falsely increased by the fact of the i'm.
ported population of towns having passed
the most critical period OF their lives III
the country.
DIR. Richard Price, i'll his annuity
tables, says the expectation OF life OF n
child Just born III Shrewsbury is 33
years; in London only Is years. He adds
that while in the country parishes one in
twenty persons live to be so years and
upward, in London only one i'll 60
reaches thatage. DIR. Morgan, an emf
nent English statistician, gives the
average age of country laborers at death
as 80 years, but OF city mechanics as only
% years.
BY the census of 1870, the mean aver
age duration of human life i'll the United
States was 80, years; but i'll New York
and Philadelphia tho average term of
life is only 23 years. Taking the country
at large, there is annually one death to
every TO- inhabitants, but in New York
there is one death TO every 1913, and III
Philadelphia one to every 39.1 inhabi-
tants.
In 1000 deaths in the country in En-
gland, 202 persons reached the age of 70,
while in the crowded city of Liverpool
only 80 attained the same age. According
to the Registrar General of Great Britain,
about one-half OF all that are born alive
die before the end of the fifth year in
Liverpool; while in the country districts
nearly one-half live to the age of 80.
Physicians have carefully computed
that diseases of the nervous system arc
five times as fatal i'll great cities as ii
the country; pulmonary diseases twice as
fatal, while the proportion of mortality
from diseases of the digestive system is
as q TO /, comparing city with country.
What are the chief causes of this Ell
hanced mortality among urban popula-
tionsl They may be summed up i'll the
evils of overcrowding, vitiated air, de-
ticient exercise, late hours, over-stimulus,
and habits of luxury and debauchery.
DIR. Morgan tells us that the deaths ex-
ceed the births in London by 10000,
annually, and if the influx of newcomers
did not continually recruit the popula-
ton, the city would rapidly decline, and,
in course of time, become extinct. Yet
the tendency in England, as i'll our own
country, is steadily toward cramming
the cities with people, and depicting the
rural districts. A century ago the coun-
try held IA per cent. of the entire popu-
lation of England, while now it has but
A per cent, the cities absorbing the
enormous proportion of 56 per cent. Of
the entire population.
Some of our Psychologists tell us that
il may yet become serious question
whether the American Nation would
grow to be a permanent one If immigra-
ton were cut of. And they point us in
proof to the undoubted fact that
the number Of children born to
native parents is small, and is
annually decreasing, while our
foreign born population have a much
greater degree of fecundity 1t is his
torically certain that the march of wealth,
luxury and population has not tended to
the longevity of nations, any more than
the spread of habits of high living and
herding in thickly populated cities has
tended to length of life in individuals.
Cincinnati Commercial.