Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-07-16
INF AN 7 DEATH
RATE FIGURES
PUT CITY IN 4TH
But at Same Time Important
Decrease Was Shown for
the Last Year

The percentage or total deaths
among infants in this city, which was
the highest in the country for cities
under $4,000 population during the
calendar year 1917, took a sharp turn
for the better in 1918, with a decrease
in the PERCENTAGE of deaths of almost
one-third, according to the report of
the New York Milk Committee on it's
annual nationwide survey of 252 ci-
ties. The figures are for infant deaths
under one year, in proportion to the
entire population. At the same time
the chart shows that Perth Amboy
still ranks fourth among 143 cities of
less than $4,000 population.
The decrease in the infant death
rate as compared to the adult death
rate in 1918 is due almost entirely
to the influenza epidemic which cre-
ated such havoc here. The young
sters apparently withstood the raw
ages of pneumonia and influenza
better than their parents or were
not affected by them.
The total number of deaths, adult
and infant for 1917 amounted to 565.
In 1918 it jumped to the. unprece-
dented figure of 1895. The infant
deaths in 1917 were 1872 but failed to
show any increase to compare with
the adult deaths when they went up
to 221 in 1918. In other words the
total death rate including adults
went up 100 per cent and the infant
rate went up only about 16 per cent.
The general death rates as given
in the chart for Perth Amboy for
1917 and 1918 are 13.4 and 1873 re-
spectiyely.
In the infant mortality rate column
Perth Amboy stands twelfth among
cities of less than $4,000 population
xxyif fn nj
other towns having a high death rate
are located in the coal mining re-
gions of Pennsylvania and Virginia,
Reading, Fa., coming highest with a
rate of 202.9. The direct mortality
rate indicates the number of infants
live-born who die per thousand births.
That is; 1,267 babies die in this city
of every 10000 born, or more than
one in ten, at the 1918 rate.
The infant mortality rate in Eliza
beth which may be said to be in
practically the same industrial zone
as this city is not far from the local
rate, being 115.7. Passaic has rate
of 1919 more than ours, and Newark
slightly less, 104.7.
The death rate appears to be high
est in the cities which are industrial
in nature. The big mill towns of
New England, the coal mining cities
of Pennsylvania and the mill regions
of the south, the brickyari cities on
the Hudson and some of the ex-
treme southern municipalities head
the list with high infant mortality
rates.
New York city, with population
of nearly five millions, comes fairly
low with a rate of 91.7. isis isattri-
buted by the committee to the un-
usual facilities available to physi-
clans and mothers in the large cities
and the extreme cautions necessary
in the supervision of the milk supplies
in such cities. The three towns on
the roll of honor with less than SO
deaths per 1000 are all residential
suburbs, Brookline, Mass; Madison,
Wis, and Pasadena, Cal.
BY population the cities nearest to
Perth Amboy according to the 1910
census are: Cedar Rapids, Ia; rate
not given; Quincy, Mass, rate 67.2;
Chelsea, Mass, rate 65.S; Joplin, Mo-,
rate SOC; and Jackson, Mich, rate
Q02