Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-09-09


/ that life in this country has somewhat in
creased in duration during the last gen
Grafton, and the sanitariaus attribute the
gain 20 the better care which has been
taken of the public health since what is
called sanitary science has become sub
/ juct of special study. The great loss of
I life has always been at the beginning, in
infancy, and public hygiene directs its
eSorts toward the prevention of the filth
diseases which more particularly tests the
endurance of children under years of
age.
I But is the vital condition of the race
improving: DR., Thomas S. Sozinskey,
of Philadelphia, writes an elaborate paper
in the Medical and Surgical Reporter TO
express his doubt as 20 whether that is so
and presents an array of figures of tho
mortality in England and the United
States which will not give our correspond
ent much comfort.
IL appears from our census of 1880 that
of a hundred deaths reported during the
census year, 40 were of persons under .
years, 81 of persons under 20, only % of
persons over 80 and only 10 of those over
20. These figures DR.. Sozinskey calls as
founding; but the returns of child NOR
tality in the cities was even more startling.
The proportion of deaths under 8 years
of age is reported for :ho whole
Union Mt 49, per 1000 of living popula-
ton while in the cities which register
deaths it was SS.4 per 1900 Apparently,
therefore, the mortality among children
was twice as great in the cities as in the
country; bat really the larger urban tigur-
es are in part explained by the circum-
stance that in the cities the death returns
are more complete than those in the
country. Deaths under years are also
| less likely TO be reported than those of
older persons. and therefore the percent
ages of deaths at different ages above >
years given 10y the census are, as DR..
Saziuskey remarks, much greater than
they ought TO be, Even as the table stands
I the average age at death is not far mp III
the twtnties.
In England and Wales, whore the vital
! statistics are accurate, the decths from o
/ TO 90 years of age in 1850 were less than s
per cent. on the whole against over II
/ per cent, in the United States From 20
/ TO % they were n per cent. there, and, in
/ the United States from &c TO so they we're
"a per cent. In England the deaths of
| persons over 70 years were about equal to
/ the deaths over 20 here, In England and
Wales only 50 per cent. of the deaths we're
of persons over 45 years, and in the United
States only 80 per cent were Of those over
40 years.
Where is human life the longest, think
you good friend: In France aud in Ire
land, in poor, tortured, distressed Ireland
whose people, as DR.. Sozinskey says, are
supposed TO be peculiarly oblivious ia
sanitary science. Nearly in a 100 of the
deaths i'll Ireland are of persons over So;
only about 35 per cent. are under 20
about ~ per cent, or nearly one-half are
over A.. France is another country which
is regarded as behind the age with re-
spect to sanitary science! and yet As per
cent. of the deaths are of persons over 80
% per cent. over 20, only 26 per cent. of
children under . years and only per
cent, of young people from 3 to 20.
DR.. Sozinskey therefore comes to TIE
conclusion that the vital condition Of the
people of England and the United States
is "lamentably unsatisfactory And he
looks very skeptically ON the asserted in.
crease of the length of life there and here
He contends, too, that III the ply sica
CoHplllOu on tlle peopic OF lItlduui u pto
pie poor and comparatively ignorant o
sanitary science, is immensely superior I,
that of either there must be inHuenc,
at play in both England and the UniteC
States which much more than counter
balance all the beneficial effects of tn,
sanitary science in practice in either
country The lives of some children may
be saved, but the people die young. This
influence working against TIE race he
holds to be the artificial mode of existence
in civilized countries.