Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1878-12-20
The Causes of Death.


over thlrty-One thousand deaths,
carrying off about two per cent. of the
population, occurred in Massachusetts,
last year; and as the climate and con-
ditions of life in that Commonwealth
are in the main the same as those of all
our older Northern States, we can get
much valuable information by the study
of the causes of those deaths. t's
Of the whole number, more than a
third, or 11,170 of the deaths, were
those of children under five years of
age. Less than tenth part of the to-
tai, or only 8,967, died between the
ages OF twenty and thirty, and from
thirty onward the deaths numbered
17,205. or something more than half
of the whole. During 1877 there were
41,S5O births in the State, but during
the same time 6,343 infants under one
year were swept away by death. To
each 1000 living, the annual death rate
under five years was over sixty-one, and
it did not rise even as high as half that
until the age of seventy was passed,
when it reached sixty-eight, and then,
of course, rapidly increased
These figures, like the statistics of
mortality everywhere, go to show that
on the average very young lives are far
more in danger than any others, except
the very old. The green fruit falls to
the ground because it is unable to with
stand the blasts or is blighted, and the
old fruit drops because it is overripe.
Seventy per cent. of the deaths we're
caused by twenty different diseases, but
the greatest fatality followed the in
roads of those old enemies of life, con-
sumption, diphtheria, pneumonia, chol-
era infantum, old age, and heart dis
ease. The rest of the twenty causes,
arranged in the order of their de-
structiveness, were paralysis, typhoid
fever, cancer, dysentery, commissions,
Group, apoplexy, scarlatina, tubercular
meningitis, bronchitis, enteritis, diar-
rhea, Bright's disease, and drowning.
Consumption was the great cause of
death, as it has been in our climate
within the memory of man. More than
sixth of the whole number of deaths
for the year were due to that disease.
In every county of the State it stood
first among the causes of mortality.
Diphtheria carried off less than half as
many victims, though it was the next
most prolific cause of death; and pneu-
monia, cholera infantum, and heart
disease together, though they were all
so destructive, were responsible for only
about as many deaths as consumption
alone.
1t is interesting to observe that the
deaths from old age-1 ,586, or about
one-twentieth of the whole-stood next
in number to those from consumption
in three of the Massachusetts, counties,
and those all the less densely popu-
lated seacoast counties-Barnstable
which includes Cape Cod, Dukes, and
Nantucket, comprising the islands of
those names, and Plymouth, of national
fame. In the hill countries of Berk-
shire and Franklin the order was, first,
consumption; second, diphtheria; third,
old age; and first, consumption; Sec
ond, pneumonia; third, old age, re-
spectively.
The five causes which were the most
destructive of life at different ages in
Massachusetts, in 1877, were:
Under FiUe YearS-First, cholera in
fantum; second, diphtheria; third, pneu-
monia; fourth, convulsions; fifth,
Group.
From 5 to 1O-First, diphtheria; sec
end, scarlatina; third, Group; fourth,
typhoid fever; fifth, pneumonia.
From 10 to I4-First, diphtheria;
second, consumption; third, typhoid
fever; fourth, heart disease; fifth,
drowning.
From Is to 19 First, consumption;
second, typhoid fever; third, diphthe-
ria; fourth, pneumonia; fifth. heart dis
ease.
From 20 TO 29-First, consumption;
second, typhoid fever; third, pheu-
monia; fourth, heart disease; fifth
Bright's disease.
From 30 TO 39-First. consumption;
second, heart disease; third, pneumo-
mia; fourth, typhoid fever; fifth, child
birth.
From 10 to 49--First, consumption;
second, heart disease; third, pneumo-
mia; fourth, cancer; fifth, typhoid
fever.
From so to 59-First, consumption;
second, heart disease; third, pneumo-
mia; fourth, cancer; fifth, paralysis.
From 90 TO 69-First, consumption:
second, heart disease; third, pneumo-
mia; fourth, paralysis; fifth, cancer.
From 10 TO 79-First, old age; sec
ond, paralysis; third, heart disease;
fourth, pneumonia; fifth, consumption.
Eighty and OUer-First, old age; sec
ond, paralysis third, pneumonia;
fourth, heart disease; fifth, apoplexy.
The Massachusetts death statistics for
twenty years exhibit the progressive
fatality of diseases of the central nerv-
GUS system-apoplexy, paralysis, in
sanity, and unspecified brain diseases.
This steady increase is only another
proof of the great wear and tear on the
nervous system of our modern life. The
mortality from apoplexy is much greater
In proportion among males than fe-
males, and sixty-three per cent. of the
deaths from it occurred at ages above
sixty, while seventy-seven per cent. of
those from paralysis, related disease,
were OF persons above that age. Nearly
a third of the mortality from apoplexy
fell to Suffolk County, the seat of Bos-
ton. That terrible disease, cancer, de-
stroyed GAG lives in 1877, seventy-three
per cent. of the deaths being of females,
and the ages at which death occurred
being chiefly between fifty and seventy.
Consumption is most fatal to females,
and in the decade of life between twenty
and thirty years. Heart diseases and
Brighcs disease of the kidneys show a
increase in Massachusetts,
as elsewhere, during the last ten years,
but tits probable that this increase is
only apparent, many deaths which for
merly would have been registered as due
TO dropsy being now correctly ascribed
10 diseased conditions of which dropsy
is symptom only.-M Y SHR.
A Curious Colcnlat;or