The daily sentinel., 1908-10-10
DEATH LIST
APPALLING

PrOf. irving F1sner, the eminent
political economist of Yale Univer-
sity, who, in one of his papers before
the recent International Tuberculos-
is congress in Washington, declared
that consumption costs the people of
the United States more than billion
dollars year, is preparing an ex-
haustive report for the national con-
servation commission, which will con-
| tain not only these figures, but sim
| liar data on the economic loss to the
country from all other preventable
diseases.
Prof. Fisher is a member of the
national conservation commission,
and for many years has been carry
ing on studies along these lines. The
commission received letters from ply
sicians all over the country urging it
to consider the bearing of public
health on the economic efficiency of
the nation in it's efforts to ascertain
the resources of the country.
The commission from the begin
ming has contemplated reports on the
economic aspects of several phases
of the conservation movement which
affect the duration and effectiveness
of human life; but Prof. Fisher has
undertaken to prepare comprehens-
i've statement of the whole subject of
the relations of public health to the
general field of conservation, and es-
pecially as to the waste from pre-
ventable diseases and unnecessary
deaths.
DR.. Fisher is professor of political
economy at Yale University and the
chairman of the committee of one
hundred of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science,
which has for long time been car
rying on propaganda for the increase
of national health through the elm
ination of preventable diseases. This
committee of one hundred is COM
posed of physicians and men engaged
in active sociological work in every
part of the country. and the results
of their Investigations and expert |
ence are all available to DR.. Fisher.
so that his report ought to be the
most thorough-going and complete |
summary of the situation ever made. |
At the tuberculosis congress Prof. |
Fisher declared that 1873, 900 persons |
die of consumption every year The |
cost of medical attendance and the |
loss of earnings before death average |
at least $4,000. he said. while, If to |
this is added the money that might |
have been earned with health, the |
total loss in each case is about S.
900
He pointed out. also, that the dis
ease usually attacks young men and |
women just at the time when they |
are beginning to earn money, and |
cuts off their earning power for about |
three years on an average before they |
die.
This subject of the economic value .
to the country of a general raising of |
the average health came up in the
governors conference at the White |
House in May. DR.. George NJ Kober |
in his speech on the "Conservat tionfo of |
Life and Health by Improved Water
Supply" at the conference presented
figures which showed that the de-
crease in the vital assets" of the
country through typhoid fever in
single year is more than $3.50, ,00O,-
900. Typhoid is spread by polluted
water largely so that the death rate
from this disease can be directly re-
duced by the publication of city
drinking water.
DR.. Kober quoted statistics to show
that the increased value of the water
to the city of Albany, where the ty-
phoid fever rate was reduced from
1O4 in 100000 to 26 by an efficient
filtration plant. amounts to $475,000
a year, of which S330,000 may be
real increase to the vital
assets of the city Census bureau
figures show that the average annual
death rate from typhoid in cities with
water supplies was re-
duced from 69.4 per 100000 to 1913
by the substitution of pure supplies.
DR.. Kober cited estimates showing
that the average length of human life
in the 10th century was between g
and 20 years, and that at the close of
the 18th century it was little more
than 80. while today it is between
3S and 40-indeed, the span of life
since 1850 has been heightened about /
six years.