The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-23
BOARD OF HEALTH STATISTICS OF NEW YORK INTERESTING Greater Number of Deaths Caused by B Principal
 Diseases
TUBERCULOSIS IS
 THE MOST FATAL
Nineteen Kinds of Accidents May Be- fall Anyone With Hundred Varia- tions-Are Twelve Distinct
 Ways of Falling

Board of health reports make good reading, says the New York Times. Their literary style may not be particularly fas- cinating, but the facts presented are 50 interesting that the discriminating read CT will never stop to bother about mere style. The subjects considered admit Of many statistical observations calculated to impress the thoughtful. There Is mar riage, for instance. That is A subject in which all except the hopelessly misan- thropic are interested, and they can learn more about it in the reports than any where else, except in actual experience, and for variety of information the pub lished figures beat even that.
 From marriage 1t is only short step to accident. sickness, and death. At any rate, that is the way the board of health looks at it Nobody can ever know hoT' many different kinds of things there are to be sick with until he begins to sturdy the health reports. After that the variety of ailments to choose from appals him, and he suddenly conceives a wholesome respect for the doctors who undertake to cure them all. In Manhattan the mor- tality for the particular year under cor- sideration was brought up to the 33,00J mark Gin round numbers) hy 3s clearly defined diseases, which with their various subdivisions, aggregated 1s0 forms of physical derangement, while "other'' and 'ill-defined'' causes added b647 to the reg ular list. But they can do even better than that in Brooklyn. Over there they have 8 classified kinds of sickness, with corresponding subdivisions. and the other and 'ill-defined" cases thrown in for good measure.
 Tuberculosis Most Deadly
 Of course, everybody who reads, the papers nowadays knows that pulmonary tuberculosis is the greatest actor in the death list with pneumonia and heart dis ease and influenza fighting for second third and fourth places; but there are other things almost as interesting that they do not know. hamilton, for exam pie, is something worth thinking about, in view of the fact that scarcely day passes without some one reinarking in our hearing that he Is literally starving to death" Fortunately. that is form Of hyperbole seldom realized. Pure starva- ton is a rare disease. It must be con soling to civic pride that it is SO In 1eii only one person, a boy aged 1 year, realiy died from lack of sustenance. That, to be sure, was one too many; still, in al, the seething, unsettled multitude Of great city. it Is not bad record.
 The health reports show. too, how much ca sier it is to get warm than it is to keep cool In the year above mentioned 127S persons died of sunstroke but only three froze to death. Boils. that plague of clas- sic and scrlptural renown, still get ill their deadly work and added, with the assist ance of carbuncles. 16 modern Jobs to their long list of victims.
 Chapter on Accidents
 The chapter on accidents is replete with Interest. According to the health reports there are 19 different kinds of accidents that may befal one. with close on to hundred variations to relieve the monot- ony. Even the simple act of falling can be performed in r distinct ways Every thing depends upon the proposition. You can fall from things and down things and on things and over things. The things mentioned as suitable to fall from are bridges, windows. scaffol1s, fire escapes and high buildings. In falling "down' anything it is well to choose an areaway, an airshaft. a flight of stairs, an eleva- tor shaft or a hatchway. When falling 'cn" things the sidewalk or some sharp edged Instrument is advised. When fall ing lover" an obstruction. the board com fines it's recommendation to a skipping rope. There are probably still more ways to fall correctly but they are simply Jumped in the report as others and the reader of an Investigating turn of mind can study them out at his leisure. More people seem to fall from than any other way. and their favorite starting point is the window
 There are two ways to be drownel namely, in bays and rivers and other nat ural bodies of water, and in tubs and pails. Most people incline to the former method. Suffocation is produced by sever distinct conditions. Burns are due to 1! definite causes and 9S others mot spe- cifed by the coroners." The range ir poisons is wide, 27 different kinds being mentioned as capable of producing fata results. These dangerous compounds range all the way from camphor and bus mixtures to strychnine. Reckoning from the standpoint of mortality, Illuminating gas heads the list and carbolic acid comes next in order.
 About Old Age
 Another curious fact recorded in tht health reports pertains to the very aged It is therein stated that very few peopl, who have lived more than 100 years dlt of old age They die of everything else Pneumonia carries them off. and apoplexN and bronchitis and falls, but old age rare ly touches them. Whether this diagnosis Is strictly professional whether it is [
 
 tient is question. If it is purely med ical opinion. it is an incentive to every body to attain that age, because afte passing the century mark senility will b' less likely to assail one. Of the centen erians 70 per cent are women. and the United States is the birthplace of tn greatest number. Ireland comes next ii the matter of longevity. and Germany ant Russia finish the roll call.
 Other topics of profound interest arr treated in tabulated columns and foot notes, but the only additional item calins for special attention is found in that par ticular section in which are describe, discoveries made on the water front Therein it is recorded that 32 goats an, 1864 mattresses came to an untimely en, in that inhospitable region. By the tim the common mind has absorbed that ob struee statement it begins to entertain q mighty respect for the board of health It is a board that seems well nigh omni ecient. If there is anything 1t does no krow, the layman would like to have tn subject mentioned. not for personal as 0imilation but guarantee of goo faith. It even keeps track of the tin can and old bottles thrown away in the cours of the year and any board that can d. tfat deserves to have it's reports studie' diligently.
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