Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-12
LOWEST DEATH RATE
Marked Diminuti0n Noted in
District in 1912.
TOTAL FOR YEAR, $3.50
Figures Show the Mortality Was
1873 Per Thousand.
STATISTICS ARE ENCOURAGING
DR.. w. c. Woodward, Health Officer,
in Report Reviews the Condi-
lions at Length.
ARE ENCOURAGING

| The lowest death rate the District of
, Columbia ever has known was recorded
during the year just closed, according to
a statement yesterday afternoon by DIR.
| William c. Woodward, health officer of
| the District
With the diminution in the death rate
it is reasonable to suppose that there has
been corresponding decrease in the
prevalence of disease, the health officer
| asserts.
| Better sanitation. more widely diffused
knowledge of personal hygiene and adj
| vances in medicine and surgery are de-
clared by DIR. Woodward to be response
BILE for the improved showing.
The report, which reviews at length
| the health record of the year, is as
| follows:
THE lowest death rate the District of
Columbia has ever known has just been
recorded for the calendar year 1872.
Deaths during the year numbered $3.50,
and the death rate was, therefore, 1913
per thousand. The death rate for the
preceding year was 1903, and the aver
age annual death rate for the five years.
| 1gO6-191O, was 1850. What these figures
| that had the rate for 1912 been as high
| as the rate for 1911, 104 more persons
would have died in the year Had 1t been
| as high as the average rate for the nVe-
| year period referred to above, 35l more
| deaths would have occurred. And MAD
| the death rate for the year 1872 been as
| high as was the average death rate ten
| years ago, LII persons would nave dled'
| who. by reason of better sanitation, more
| widely diffused knowledge of personal n.y.
| surgery now remain alive.
Limited to White Race.
| And it is reasonable to believe that
| along with this diminution in the death
| rate there has been a corresponding dim
| mutton in the prevalence of disease.
| Improvement for 1912. compared with
| that for 1911, was limited, however. to
| the white race. The death rate among
! the whites was 14.1S per thousand, as
| compared with 14.S7 during the preceding
| year; the colored death rate was 1883. as
compared with 26.12.
THE most important causes of death
| in 1912 were pulmonary tuberculosis and
| pneumonia. Pulmonary tuberculosis killed
| 123 persons. equivalent to death rate
4 of 204 per hundred thousand. The death
| rate for the preceding year was 207, and
4 for the five-year period 1G6-l910 the
death rate averaged annually DID, One of
i the most conspicuous features in the
death rate from tuberculosis is the wide
difference between the death rate for
the white and that for the colored race
| OF the white population, only 119 per hum
dred thousand died from this disease dur
| ing the year, while among the cOlored
/ people 425 died.
| Pneumonia. too. showed a downward
tendency during 1912. although this must
| not be looked upon as indicating a per-
tom Of hic fny ard 9.
declined prevalence, for pneumonia Is one
of the diseases that sanitation and hy-
i gene have as yet done little or nothing
| to limit or eXtinguish Deaths from pneu-
monia in 1912 numbered 525, or 14s per
100000, the corresponding death rate for
the preceding year being 1853. Had the
death rate for 1912 continued as high as
that for the preceding year, IS more per-
sons would have died from pneumonia
than the number actually recorded.
Conditions Among Infants.
- .'One of the most satisfactory features
of the years record is the diminution
shown in the mortality among infants.
Among infants under one year of age. 500
died in 1912. This means In effect that
out of every 1000 infants born lbs died
before they reached the end of the first
year of life. During the preceding year
957 deaths occurred, or 1876 per LOCO The
District is shown by taking a period ar
bitrarily. a few years back, and COM
pairing the conditions then with those that
now prevail Five years ago, in 1907, not
wthstanding the smaller population. l la
deaths occurred among children during
the first year of life. indicating that out
of every 1000 children born at that time
1913 died before the first anniversary of
birth. Compare this with the correspond
ing death rate for last year. 12S, and it
will be seen what modern science and
philanthropy are doing for the baby.
lone of the chief causes of death
among children in the first and second
years of life is the group of maladies
commonly classed under the term
diarrheal diseases The number of deaths
recorded from this group of diseases in
1912 was 1877, and the number recorded
during the preceding year 2:0 Com
ruted upon the basis of the population,
these figures show that in 1912 fifty-three
children died during the first two years
of life from diarrheal diseases out of
I every 100000 people in the District. while
[ during the preceding year seventyfour
people of the same class died from that
cause. This means saving of twenty
one lives during the year.
Figures Do Not Tell All.
Even these figures, however do not
show the enormous reduction in the num-
Der of deaths occurring from this class
| Of disease and, therefore, in the number
of cases of these diseases that has re-