Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-20
The Bate Of Mortality is Gradually
Being Lowered
IN ALL OF OUR LARGE CITIES
Another Instance Where Preven-
ton is Better Than Cure.
SCIENTIFIC METHODS, USED

During the first five years. publicly nm
recorded and lost sight of in the excite
ment over the discoveries of new remedies
and new methods of treatment, the health
of the cities OF America has been con-
stantly improving and the death rates
dwindlins. This has been strangely marked.
Told In figures, this general lowering of the
death rate means the saving of $4,000 lives
yearly. To explain more fully, had The
science of sanitation and the art of public
or preventive medicine (by which is
meant the guarding against maladies be-
fore they Gomez, not been carried TO their
present high levels. and had the death
rates of American cities been allowed to re-
main where they We're five years ago
5000 more persons in these cities alone
would have been swept out of existence this
year. Quietly, yet surely. in nearly every
municipality from the Atlantic to the Pa
cific, the health boards have beer cleaning
up, investigating, examining foods. build
ings and their city's waste. and keeping
eye officially on communicable diseases.
Diphtheria. typhoid and tuberculosis (con-
SUMPTION have been watched as they never
were before, and not only are precautions
AIKEN against the spread, ever so slight, of
thes" diseases, but measures are constantly
adopted TO reduce the number of cases in
ordinary times. Thus i'm New York city
alone 1860 lives are being saved yearly
from the ravages of diphtheria Chis by the
use of antitoXiE), and during the past three
years the number of deaths from consump-
ton has been gradually scaled down until
ii is now annually 800 less than Ii used
to be.
Death Rate of Children.
In the other cities of America while per-
haps not SO far reaching, the Improvement
is 10 less evident. There is hardly disease
in which a decrease in the death rate is
not TO be noted. The great death danger
and what chiefly brings up the death per-
centage in any city is the mortality of chill
dren under five. In London the heal, hest
great city in the world, the death rate of
infants (rnder five) is 90 in 1000 G.ondon's
total death rate being trifle less than lS),
with the death rate between the ages of
five and twenty-five only Az, and between
twenty-five and forty-five averaging less
than II. Thus an immense amount of at
tention is now being paid to the guarding
OF young children's lives by better sanitary
regulations, cleaner streets and the thor
ouSh inspection of milk. Exactly what has
been the decrease in the percentage of in
FAINT mortality throughout the cities of the
country cannot be told, for no figures have
been made up, but authorities give it as
something like p per cent
Nineteen of the most prominent Ameri-
can cities, taken so as to include every see
ton OF the country, show, in every case
save one, decrease. In this one case the
death rate has not varied for twenty years
except slightly. from year TO year. That
city is Providence, r. /. Minneapolis shows
the largest decrease, her death rate hay-
ing fallen steadily from IL per 900 in
1886 to 9.l3 during 1896. A table made up
from the official health board reports of
nineteen leading cities and approved by
lneuicai experts; shows the actual number
of lives saved this year. The cities are as
follows: New York. Brooklyn, Chicago.
Boston. Philadelphia, New Orleans, Cleye-
land, Milwaukee, Baltimore. San Francisco.
Buffalo, Denver. Cincinnati, st. Louis,
Hartford. Providence, Minneapolis St
Paul and Atlanta.
The lives saved foot up 2s.S6T. The total
population ESTIMATED, 1S90 of these cities
Is 10, I2oNO. Statistics show that a0O0o,0W
people of the United States live in cities
Even allowing that the decrease of the
death rate has not been so great In the
other cities, there Is little question but that
the total number of lives saved yearly now
amount to 3o,ob, and the complete figures
would probably show nearer 10000
one thing should be noted in regard
to these figures. a low death rate is no
particular evidence OF superior administra-
tlon. Certain cities because of their sifua-
ton or their comparative newness natural
ly have low death rate. Particularly is
this the case with the newer cities OF the
west, where there is no overcrowding and
no rcokeries. In a newer city there are
apt to be fewer of the very old and the
very young, and the larger the percentage
OF Inhabitants in the prime of life between
ten and thirty-five). the better a cfty's
health under any conditions.
Scientific Measures.
Since 1872 these new scientific measures
and methods have been coming into use
Chief among them have been antitoxfn for
diphtheria. the public supervision Of tuber-
culosis, the meteorological diagnosis of tu-
berculosis and d;phtheria at the service of
private physicians, the famous blood tests
Tor typhoid the irSt,ectioo Of
which a Gordon is formed around city
and no milk allowed to come in that does
not reach certain. standard the inspection
OF the cows Cwfthin the city limits) from
Whlch milk Is produced, the proper clean
ing OF streets and removal of garbage,
sanitary inspection and the medical in
spection of children in schools, and the
wholesale destruction of rear tenements
and condemned buildings.
Properly speaking, this is the science of
preventive medicine and It is all Of
these innovations, not one of which has
proved a failure, that have made this rev.
oiut1on in the health of Americas cities
In the great majority of these innovations;
In the most important of these scientific
measures, the initiative was taken and the
project launched under the scientific guild
ance of DR.. H. NJ. Biggs, bacteriologist of
the New York board of health and under
the practical supervision of Charles &;
wilson its president. Other cities have
rapidly followed suit. Approved by visit
ing scientists of the country many of
whom have gone to New York esperially
to study these methods and iniorsed by
the American public health associations.
nearly all of these innovations have been
adopted elsewhere, gradually and in part.
yet enough to show that they have met
with favor.
Chicago, in her health board has imita ted
New York in almost every particular ana
has a more complete series of plans than
any other city outside of New York She