New Britain herald., 1922-12-08
10 YEARS MORE OF
 LIFE IS POSSIBLE
Insurance Expert Says Nations
 Health Is Growing Betters !

New York, Dec. 6.-Life insurance l death claims. up to November l. show [ that the United States and Canada
 are this year experiencing n health
 record almost identical with that of
 1921. which was the best in public
 health history. A survey of these claims covering the deaths for the first ten months of 1922 among 29.- { 000,000 insured persons was submit }Ated to the Sixteenth Annual Conven- ton of the Association of Life Insur- { ance Presidents here by Dr. Augustus s. Knight, medical director Of the ' Metropolitan Life Insurance company 'fof this city.
 This years experience with low death rate is considered all the more
 remarkable because the first quarter
 of the year began with much higher
 mortality than did the corresponding { period in 1921. Two successive low annual death rates are regarded as
 more than coincidence, and are be- slieved to be a fore-runner of a dis tinct permanent improvement in na- . tional health conditions.
 T. B. Cases Fewer. K Still further material reductions are
 noted in 1922 in deaths from tuber-
 culosis and typhoid fever, while sui- tScides, homicides and children's dis 7 cases, with the exception of measles, ilalso show some decrease
 9 On the other hand, automobile ac- 8cidents. organic heart ailments, cere-
 bral hemorrhage and Bright's disease
 caused more deaths this year than in sa1921. Mortality from heart disease. twhich led as Q cause of death last
 year, shows large increase this year.
 a total of 1s0,O00 deaths being~4ndi-
 cated in continental United States and Canada.
 E Nineteen twenty-two has been an- other remarkable year inc public health history" said Dr. Knight.
 s'The figures for the first 10' months show a death rate just about as good aas the unsurpassed record of 1921.
 Forty-four life insurance companies which, together. carried over S3 per tcert. of the total ordinary business of the United States and Canada, have
 had a mortality rate in 1922 Of 6.4 iJfeaths per 1000 lives as compared with e.5 last year. In other words, the mortality rate this year in the ordinary field is q little more than : one per cent better than last year. The records of the five companies re-
 porting on industrial life insurance,
 which comprises 53 per cent. ofAthe : total industrial business, show a death m.stte this year of 9.6 per 1,000s as
 compared with 9.4 last year, 'wh ietlAs "a little more than one per cent. rnSn-
 CT than the record Of 1921. If We acombine the ordinary and industrlal sbusiness, the ratexfor this year is al-
 most identical with that for last year,
 the figures being S,S2 for 1922 as
 compared with S.2S in$1a21 or less than one-h half of onn' per cent. in es- Scess this year. @ S Decline ColtiAncs. A, 'erhe reIharkable deeiine in mortal Aty which began afterathe influenza Epidemic iSs1 SIS and in the early part tof 1af9, and which means SO much for the insurance business as well as sfor the public welfare, apparently scontinues j; is not temporary ben7 ..fit which we enjoy in the recorded sexperience of the last few years The 'Eainsf%hich have been accomplished are substantial and apparently per.
 manent and that is because they sihave been accomplished by changes
 in fundamental conditions.
 E War On Tuberculosis.
 .The gains are distinctly associated with an improvement in the tuper- slosis death rate," said pr. lAnight. sThat disease is rapidly giving way 10 the onsaughts of public health