Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-04-11
LIVE TOOFAST
TO REACH BEST
YEARS OF LIFE
University Doctor Says That
Chances of Death Are
Increasing.

COLUMBIA, No, April 11.-"Americans
live too hard and too fast. The chances
of death after fifty years Of life are in
creasing-~ instead Of decreasing. In the
last twenty years the death rate during
the first five years Of life has been great
IL lowered, but for the later years men
and women only lose their services to the
community and State when they reach
middle life"
These are some Of tha-deductions made
by DIR. NJ P. Ravenel, professor Of pre-
ventive medicine in the charge Of the
Public Health Service laboratories at the
school Of medicine OF the University OF
Missouri. The bureau Of the census has
recently sent advanced information on
new life tables, which are soon to be
Issued. This will be the second official
publication of life tables ever issued IN
the United States, and figures are now
available for the last twenty years.
People are interested in health large
II because they are afraid to die" Dr..
Rsvenel, who is also president OF the
National American Public Health As
ISOLATION, continued THE true motive for
health should be efficiency and not the
mere prolOngation Of life.
'.The results obtained by our Census
Bureau show that the death rate at
practically all ages is higher for men
than for women, and the women show
ing the lowest death rate are those Hv-
ing in rural communities. For both
sexes rural dwellings show a lower death
rate, age for age, than for persons living
IN cities.
while the average span Of life has
Increased for both sexes there is no evil
dence that there has been any actual
u
explained by the fact that practically
all classes Of people are living longer
on the average, and the greatest cause
Of this average increase is the saving
of life in the first five years.
an 1909 a white female was entitled
to expect three years longer life than
white males, and in 1910 this had in
creased to three and one-hah years. Ex-
cept for negroes, there has been = gen
eral improvement for all classes up to
the age OF 20 for men and 30 for women.
There has been a decided improve
ment among all classes of population in
the infant death rate. Again, we find
that children born in the country show
a considerably lower death rate than
those born In the city. However, Il is
not as great as It was In 1901, which
indicates that the widespread efforts
which have been put forth to better con-
ditions in our cities have met with sue
cess.
Comparing ourselves with the fol-
lowing foreign countries. Australia,
Denmark, England, France, Germany,
Holland, India, Italy, Japan, Norway,
Sweden and Switzerland, we find that,
except for France. India and Japan, our
expectation Of life both for men and
women is less favorable than in any Of
the foreign countries mentioned
''In Norway, for example, which shows
the lowest annual death rate for the arst
year OF life, for every thousand the
rate is eighty-One deaths for males and
Eixty-seven deaths for females, while for
the corresponding class in this country
the ratio is 127 for males and 105 for
females. The most striking thing about
these figures is the great improvement
IN our death rate during the early years