Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-09-09

that life in this country has somewhat in
creased In duration during the last gen
Grafton, and the sanitarians attribute the
| gain to 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
life has always been at the beginning, in
infancy, and public hygiene directs its
efforts toward the prevention of the filth
diseases which more particularly tests the
endurance of children under ) years of
age.
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 to whether that is so
and presents an array of figures of the
mortality in England and the United
States which will not give our correspond
ent much comfort.
1t appears from our census of 1880 that
of hundred deaths reported during the
census year, 40 were of persons under 5
years, 81 of persons under 20, only % of
persons over so 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 years
of age is reported for the whole
Union at 43.7 per 1000 of living popula-
ton, while in the cities which register
deaths it was S6.4 per 1000. Apparently,
therefore, the mortality among children
was twice as great in the cities as in the
country; but really the larger urban figur-
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 5
years given by the census are, as DR..
Sazinskey remarks, much greater than
they ought to be. Even as the table stands
the average age at death is not far up in
the twenties.
In England and Wales, where the vital
statistics are accurate, the deaths from
TO 20 years of age in 1880 were less than 8
per cent. on the whole, against over II
per cent. in the United States. From 20
to SO they were 81 per cent. there, and, in
the United States from &c to so they were
"a per cent. In England the deaths of
persons over rs years were about equal to
the deaths over 20 here. In England and
Wales only 80 per cent. of the deaths were
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 and in Ire
land, in poor, tortured, distressed Ireland
whose people, as DR.. Sozinskey says, are
supposed to be peculiarly oblivious to
sanitary science. Nearly 5 in 100 of the
deaths in Ireland are of persons over So;
only about 35 per cent. are under 90;
about ~ per cent. or nearly one-half are
over 10. 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 so,
25 per cent. over 20, only 26 per cent. of
children under 5 years, and only per
cent, of young people from to 20.
DR.. Sozinskey therefore comes to the
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 ''if the ply steal
condition Of the people of Ireland, peo-
pie poor and comparatively ignorant of
sanitary science, is immensely superior to
that of either, there must be influence
at play in both England and the United
States which much more than counter.
balance all the beneficial effects of the
sanitary science in practice in either
country" The lives of some children may
be saved, but the people die young. The
influence working against the race he
holds to be the artificial mode of existence
in civilized countries.