Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1936-12-31
infant TOLL HIGH
IN u. S. DEATH RATE
Mortality Greatest in First
Five Years of Life.


the first five years are the hardest,
and of these, the first year is IL
times as fatal as any of the next
four. A recent thoroughgoing study
by the Census bureau of deaths
and their cause in 1884 disclosed
that the five-year period which most
nearly approaches the first period
in fatalities is that between the ages
of seventy and seventy-five.
This might bring the improper
conclusion that if a person gets
through the first five years it is
likely that he will live to seventy.
The dividing line, however, lies
somewhere just under sixty. There
are slightly more deaths under six
ty than beyond that age.
Of the 1,157, 44O deaths in 1884
that were analysed by the bureau,
585,696 were under sixty; ST. 44
were after sixty. The study, for
comparative purposes, covered
those "a states which have been
reporting their vital statistics regu-
larly to the bureau since 1920.
Some of the Causes.
Among the causes, the diseases
of early infancy-congenital debili-
ty, premature birth and injury at
birth-accounted for almost half
the deaths of those under one year.
Pneumonia, diarrhea, entritis and
congenital malformations covered
another third. Whooping cough and
influenza also claimed heavy fatali-
ties among babies.
A close, general analysis, cover
ing not only child but adult deaths,
disclosed that about one out of four
dies of heart or some circulatory
disease; one out of nine dies of
cancer; one out of 10 from dis
eases of the nervous system; one
of 10 from infectious or parasitic
diseases, with about the same ra-
ito for accidents and for digestive
disorders.
Most of the fatal illnesses of
man lie between the skin and the
bones. Only one of every 813 die
of bone ailments, one of 685 from
skin diseases. One out of every
$40 dies of chronic poisoning and
intoxication. And just one out of
every 166 lives long enough to die
of old age. Curiously enough, one
death was attributed to senility be-
tween the ages of forty-five and
fifty. The period claiming the
largest number of such deaths,
however, was between eighty and
eighty-five.
Cancer Rate High.
Some of the diseases that ranked
highest in fatalities were: Tuber-
culosis, 57,897; cancers and other
tumors, 123,211; diabetes, 24,826;
cerebral hemorrhage, 1896; endo-
carditis, 53,240; myocarditis, 1884,
592; heart diseases, 42,348; bron-
chopneumonia, 34,254; lobar pneu-
monia, 44,791; violent and acciden-
tai deaths, 108, 40; digestive dis
eases, 1O6.171.
Generally, the study showed that
the modern was troubled most with
his heart and circulatory system,
next with cancers and tumors, has
nervous system that skaters,
falls prey to dozens of infectious
and parasite-carried diseases and
is subject to a broad category of
accidents. Beyond these, he has a
stomach and digestive tract that
may take him away. But small
pox, the scourge of century ago,
has almost vanished from the bod
les of Americans. There were only
nine deaths from smallpox in the
area covered.
Some of the rarer diseases
showed themselves, however. Two
died of the plague. Scurvy took
%. Beriberi claimed four. And,
perhaps indicative of the depres-