Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1886-03-26
The Death Rate Among Doctors

Mortality in the medical profession
is topic likely to prove important to
the world at large, if only as a study
in that wide field of science which
deals with our occupations in refer
ence to the diseases they induce. DR..
Ogle-who is successor TO DR.. Farr and
supeIintends the Statistical Depart
ment of the Reglstrer Generals office
has furnished abundant materials
for study on this point. To begin with
in 1881 we find that there were Is, 091
daily registered medical practitioners
on the roll of the profession. At what
rate, it may be asked, does this pro
cess of removal by death proceed2 The
reply shows that the rate is more RAPID
and, therefore more unsatis factory
than the profession Or the world care
to hear. Nor is this all. The death
rate among the doctors is not only
high, but it is also on the Increase. la
the years 1880, 1881 and 1882 the NOR
tality was higher than that seen in
other professions. 1t was also above
the death rate exhibited by doctors
for two decades or so before. The
worries of the law, it would appear,
to lot tlC iCdltIl VI
itate against forensic well-being. From
1880 to 1882 the lawyers died Off at a
rate OF 26 % per 1000; and the ''cozy
parson" for these years showed a
death rate of only Is 49, The doctors,
on the other hand exhibited a death
rate of 25 So per 1000 Again,
when the medical mortality is com par
ed with the death rate of teachers,
with that of the commercial travellers,
or even with that of the miner and
his coal dust lungs, these fairly un-
healthy or very unsanitary occupa-
tons are fourd to present favorable
comparisons with the doctors chances
of old age. The lnnkeeper, tae but.
cher, the brewer, the quarryman, the
cutler and the workers IN certain other
trades are behind the doctors in mat
ter of mortality. But this at the best
is but poor compliment to the chan
ces of health and welfare which medi-
cine offers to its votaries. Coming to
more intimate details, Dr. Ogle tells
us that we may assume as being very
near the truth that some 3S5 deaths
occur each year among the doctors OF
England and Wales. Adding in the
Scottish and Irish mortality it is prob
able that we may set down the num-
Der no as representing very nearly the
total deaths of our medical men per
annum. The causes of medical men
are further given by DR.. Ogle in an
interesting manner. He takes the
deaths per millions of doctors, and of
all other men, and shows the relative
proportions in these two death rates.
Thus per million of medical men and
per million of other men, the death
rate from scarlet fever is as So to 16;
from typhus as ~ to 50; from diph-
therla as SO to IA: from typhoid fever
as 81 to 23S: from alcoholism even,
as IFS to 1870; from suicide as 500 to
23S, and so on. In the matter of sui
eide DR.. Oyle tells us that self destuc-
ton by poison is the preferential me-
thod OF the profession.
Liver disease kills eff a moiety of
our doctors, and great authority has
explained this fact by a reference to
the irree ular dietic habits which the
business of doctor induces In the
matter of small pox the doctors come
out triumphantly. The annual death
rate from smallpox among all males
over 20 years of age is % per 600, 000,
600. Among medical men 1t is eHly
Is per 100000. Here probably,
through vaccination tells its own safe
ty and prevention, although it is clear
that the death roll in respect to other
troubles more than counterbalapces
the small pox gain. The researches
to which we have alluded show an
disputably that the war against dis
ease is one attended with risks of no
mean kind, and that those who light
the battle for us are exposed to chan
ces of death above those incurred by
nearly all their fellows.